- The court in Shenzen found him guilty of illegal practice and also fined him 3m yuan (US$430,000), according to the state news agency Xinhua. Two other people on He’s research team received lesser sentences and fines.
“The three accused did not have the proper certification to practise medicine, and in seeking fame and wealth, deliberately violated national regulations in scientific research and medical treatment,” the court said, according to Xinhua. “They’ve crossed the bottom line of ethics in scientific research and medical ethics.”
LOL this is China, dawg. The guy knew going in he'd probably do jail time. That was the cost of doing it. He'll go in, he'll spend just long enough for the Party to be assured of his loyalty, then he'll come out with little fanfare and keep on keepin' on, doing exactly what his bosses tell him to do, with a metaphorical and/or literal gun to his head, same as everyone on his staff. It's like a dirty bomb - someone has to pop the world's cherry in regards to human gene editing because the first time is a shock and the second time is an inevitability. 90 years before Snowden, Harry Stimson shut down the Black Chamber because "gentlemen do not read each other's mail." China wants a leg up everywhere there might someday be legs and they will stop at nothing to get it. Official Chinese philosophy has been "if we break the rules it's because they never applied to the world's greatest people in the first place" since Ching Shih or before. Five years from now you'll have grown as accustomed to Chinese CRISPR babies as you are to Chinese social credit. It'll just be this "thing" that happens over there.Especially in countries with more corruption, less regulation, questionable attitudes toward human rights.
Several biologists familiar with CRISPR and related technology believe he falsified results and has mixed up some of the data between the children. Something has certainly been achieved, but I remain skeptical that this experiment was as successful as people are making it out to be.