Chinese Scientist Who Created CRISPR Babies Could Face the Death Penalty

[jackofwind]

For the love of Christ please lets not call them CRISPR babies or use CRISPR at all. I can see the borderline racist jokes calling these kids "Rice Crispies"

So you just wanted an excuse to make the joke, then? Because you just put that joke in the heads of everyone reading the thread.

[amarrite]

China is a capitalist country. The party that has been in control for years is the communist party. It is wrong to assume that communism is an inferior ideology. Its foundation are by far superior to the others. The idea is that instead of having 2 class like in capitalism (working class 99% of population and capitalist class (1% of population with the capitalist class owning 99% of the wealth and the working class 1% of the wealth), they want the working class to own the wealth.
If they would implement it in the states, 99% of the population would be richer. However people think it bad because the only countries that tried to implement it failed to do so (Africa is capitalist, yet nobody associates the failure of these countries to capitalism).

I would personally like to keep what freedoms I have. China is notorious for human rights violations on numerous occasions. I will agree that no one has a one size fits all system. I personally would ascribe more socialist ideologies with a capitalist way of life, and therefore keep my freedom. Maybe one day we will get the proper balance of caring for our population vs what it would actually cost.

The capitalist system has exacerbated the problem of income inequality in America to the point where people are genuinely getting pissed off about it in general conversation. I pretty much get tired of having a single person have more wealth than they could feasibly spend in a single lifetime complain about how much tax they pay.

On the topic of the scientist, from what I have read he pretty much knew he was going to fast with the research. The problem was he just didn't care about what happened to the children the popped out. He just wanted his name in the history books as the first person to use this technology to shape a human genome. Hubris was a heavy influence on this guy. While I don't think he should be put to death I do think they should set certain rules on what CRISPR can be used for. When you start messing around with genomes you are affected the evolution of an entire family, not just the baby that is born with edited genes. This can have unintended consequences that we just don't fully understand. We certainly need to look into it more before it gets out of hand.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Hope he gets released or broken out, this great man shouldn't be put to death for doing something needed.

[ro9ue]

In 20 years, the now-superhuman babies will avenge their father and single-handedly topple the regime. Coming soon in the best cinemas.

The company is called Shinra. The scientist's name is Hojo. The baby's name is Cloud.

[Techno-Druid]

China is a communist country.

But this thread, like most things on China, is pure propaganda.
The guy hasn't even been charged, no punishment has been asked so far. And still we have this thread.
Within a day you will have people yelling that China is going to kill a scientist.
And it gives the people here a chance to bash China.

God, the West is so scared of losing control over the world. The way they are pushing out propaganda should make clear they are heading for a war.

I thought the article made it clear this is a "might" situation? He very well may be executed per Chinese law, but he hasn't yet and hopeful he won't honestly (not that I want him to continue his experimentation).

[Vash The Stampede]

The babies wouldn't be executed, the scientist (He Jiankui) would be.

I'm concerned either way. Death Penalty is not for things like healthy genetic babies.

[Guyviroth]

Damn, we got ourselves a real-life Professor Hojo.

But in all seriousness, it would be excessive for him to get the death penalty. Some good years in prison and stripping of his position with denial of any state funding for future projects would be enough. Probably.

Also hope the babies grow up to be healthy and fine. And, y'know, hopefully not die within a few years or something.

[stevenho]

What genuinely worries me is the social credit system China has pushed for to apply to scientists. That makes me think that could lead to scientific censorship of things that might go against the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party.

Man...are you actually serious? You are worried that The Chinese Party might include censorship in their arsenal?

On topic: executing the guy is pointless. This stuff is the future regardless of anything anyone might want to do to stop it.

[Venant]

like always, when humans invent new things, everyone is scared to death, calling it anti-god and shit
in probably a few decade or a century, people will see it ans said : wtf they wanted to sentence to death one of the innovator in thix advanced technology ??

people dont see that eventually , genetic changed humans will be a thing in the futur to make us more stronger against everything, i really think thats it is a part of what make a civilization advance more farther

If the technology could produce significantly better people, as far as factors like IQ and longevity/disease resistance goes, don't you think the elites of most societies will want to keep that technology for themselves? If you suddenly have a whole generation of super people running around, it would threaten the power structure in any society where this happened.

[Appelgren]

For the love of Christ please lets not call them CRISPR babies or use CRISPR at all. I can see the borderline racist jokes calling these kids "Rice Crispies"

That's on you. Would never have thought of it at all.
But I like how you pretended to be offended just to get that "racist joke" out of your system

[Triggered Fridgekin]

He's probably already dead.

[Techno-Druid]

Man...are you actually serious? You are worried that The Chinese Party might include censorship in their arsenal?

I'm worried about scientists in China being theroretically unable to share important scientific data, yes. Up until now I've seen no evidence that China would ever do that unlike say pop culture or media, but even if it is, I wouldn't want it to be exacerbated.

[Yatagarasu]

No matter how you look at that guy on moral stand point, but without people like him science would not have evolved so drastically over the past 30 years. But communist countries are famous to repress or execute scientists, so no wonder he might be executed.

[RampageBW1]

The company is called Shinra. The scientist's name is Hojo. The baby's name is Cloud.

Pardon me, but was it not Sephiroth that was the Test Tube baby in Final Fantasy 7's story? Cloud was born normally, his alterations came later in his life.

[Techno-Druid]

If the technology could produce significantly better people, as far as factors like IQ and longevity/disease resistance goes, don't you think the elites of most societies will want to keep that technology for themselves?

Have any elites actually kept any technological innovation to themselves for an extended period of time? As new technology is born, the models of tomorrow become more and more accessible to the public.

[ro9ue]

Pardon me, but was it not Sephiroth that was the Test Tube baby in Final Fantasy 7's story? Cloud was born normally, his alterations came later in his life.

u right .

[Knaar]

There is so many things done in today's hospital on a daily basis that if you went back in time to learn "how" they came up with that solution you'd tell youself it's impossible, they shouldnt have allowed that and other stuff like that.
Alot of important discovery are made in back alleys, in shady places, outside the normal channels or in place you dont even want to know what is going on in there and then, 20-30 years later we're thanking the guy that took the chance of doing it.

They might kill that chinese scientist, but he'll be for ever knew at that first person to have done it and maybe it will be thanks to him that in XX years we'll be able to remove bad genes and save even more people.

[Skulltaker]

In 20 years, the now-superhuman babies will avenge their father and single-handedly topple the regime. Coming soon in the best cinemas.

When the discussion about genetic modification became crisp, they were... CrispR. The AvengRs, by Michael Bay.

[Auberdeen]

In 20 years, the now-superhuman babies will avenge their father and single-handedly topple the regime. Coming soon in the best cinemas.

starring jackie chan as the evil emperor, the older weasley bros in yellow-face playing the girl twins, and a side plot with chow yun-fat doing something random and convoluted. would still be better then dbz or air bender

[stevenho]

I'm worried about scientists in China being theroretically unable to share important scientific data, yes. Up until now I've seen no evidence that China would ever do that unlike say pop culture or media, but even if it is, I wouldn't want it to be exacerbated.

Censorship has been the literal MO of The Chinese Party for a many a decade.
Science is as heavily policed as anything.