{"id":132604,"date":"2019-04-29T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=132604"},"modified":"2019-04-29T10:34:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T09:34:54","slug":"genetically-modified-babies-the-genetic-editing-of-human-life-is-big-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/04\/genetically-modified-babies-the-genetic-editing-of-human-life-is-big-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetically Modified Babies: The Genetic Editing of Human Life Is \u201cBig Business\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

28 Apr 2019 – Last November, He Jiankui<\/strong>, a Chinese biology professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST)\u00a0<\/strong>in Shenzhen (Guangdong Province) announced that he and his team had created the World\u2019s first \u201cgenetically edited babies\u201d: twin babies Lula and Nana. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. He Jiankui, used the\u00a0CRISPR technology \u201cto alter the embryos of seven couples [allegedly] to make them resistant to HIV\u201d. \u00a0He Jiankui made his announcement at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing held at the University of Hong Kong. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. He claims to have used CRISP \u201cto tweak the DNA of human embryos<\/a> during in vitro fertilization\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The broad implications of this experiment are far-reaching. The genetic editing of human life forms including embryos has a bearing on the future of humanity.<\/p>\n

It opens up the Pandora \u2019s Box of genetic engineering applied to human beings.<\/p>\n

It undermines the \u201creproduction of real life\u201d. Potentially, it destroys humanity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Screenshot Source Nature News Carl Zimmer<\/p><\/div>\n

The experiment raises important scientific and ethical issues. Human embryos are not commodities.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government immediately opened an investigation; Dr He Jiankui was fired by his University in January 2019.<\/p>\n

Corporate Interests: Genetic Editing is \u201cBig Business\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite government regulations and ethical issues, there are powerful corporate interests involved in the development and patenting of genetic editing of life forms including Dr. He\u2019s findings on \u201cgenetically modified babies\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Dr. He\u2019s University based lab biology project at SUST has been closed down, he nonetheless remains Chairman and \u00a0major stakeholder of the\u00a0Shenzhen based Direct Genomics Biotechnology<\/a>, <\/strong>\u201ca genome sequencing\u201d firm, with extensive financial resources.\u00a0\u00a0Direct Genomics received at least US$43 million in funding from both Chinese and international investors:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 The funding was led by Shenzhen Cosun Venture Capital Investment Management<\/strong>, a venture capital firm owned by Shenzhen-listed Coship Electronics and Chen Libei<\/strong>, an executive of state-backed Fortune Capital. \u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Other investors include Beijing Xiyi Asset Management<\/strong>, which has only one venture capital deal \u2013 Direct Genomics \u2013 since its inception in 2016 on public record. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

In November 2016, Direct Genomics received an undisclosed amount of funding from three investors \u2013 Beijing Tengye Venture Capital, Amer International Group, and Sinotech Genomic<\/strong>s, according to tianyancha.com, a Chinese corporate information data provider. (SCMP, November 29, 2018)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re talking about \u201cBig Business\u201d involving the potential marketing and sale of genetically modified human and animal life forms. Imagine the potential strategic and military applications, not to mention the emergence of a corporate health service economy for the super-rich, where \u201cperfect babies\u201d can be purchased for a million dollars.<\/p>\n

Following the Chinese government investigation, there is no concrete evidence that this corporate genetic editing project has been discontinued. Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

Read More: Son of Frankenstein? UK Body Backs Human Embryo Gene Editing<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is worth noting that the intellectual property rights pertaining to the CRISPR -Cas9 gene editing<\/strong> technology used by Dr. He\u2019s team (i.e.\u00a0editing the DNA of \u00a0human and animal life) are not registered in China. The patent belongs to a US based entity: \u00a0the\u00a0Broad Institute<\/a>, located\u00a0in Cambridge, Mass. with links to Harvard and MIT.<\/p>\n

The Broad Institute<\/a>\u00a0is firmly committed to the pursuit of genetic editing of human living cells:<\/p>\n

The ability to precisely edit the genome of a living cell holds enormous potential to accelerate life science research, improve biotechnology, and even treat human disease.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the Broad Institute owns the intellectual technology, CRISPR-Cas9 was invented by a Chinese American scientist Dr. Feng Zhang based at the Broad Institute and MIT.<\/p>\n

MIT Prof. Feng Zhang\u00a0responding to Dr He\u2019s controversial announcement<\/a>\u00a0calls for \u201ca moratorium on implantation of edited [human] embryos \u2026until we have come up with a thoughtful set of safety requirements first.\u201d<\/p>\n

This statement represents the interests of the Broad Institute.\u00a0According to Feng Zhang\u2019s colleague Professor David Liu\u00a0<\/a>(also on behalf of the Broad Institute):<\/p>\n

\u201c[Dr He\u2019s] reported use of CRISPR nuclease to edit CCR5 in human embryos, resulting in live births,<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026 [constitutes] a serious breach of ethics \u2026 Foremost, that edited human babies were generated without the full engagement of independent scientific and ethics experts, relevant regulatory institutions, and governing bodies is appalling.\u201d (emphasis added)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These statements are tantamount to \u201ccrocodile tears\u201d. Failing effective government regulation (e.g. by the Trump administration), the ethical considerations will eventually be scrapped or bypassed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoratorium\u201d rather than \u201cAbolition\u201d of a potentially dangerous technology is the talking point: \u201cWe have a legal moratorium on that here,\u201d said U.S. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb<\/a>\u2026 The potential applications are also relatively dangerous if they get into the hands of people who don\u2019t have good judgment or have ill intent.\u201d (Bloomberg SFGate<\/a>, \u00a0November 27, 2018)<\/p>\n

A moratorium on behalf of those who own the CRISPR patent does not foreclose the development and marketing for profit of genetic editing of human embryos. Money is the driving force. The Moratorium will eventually be lifted.\u00a0Potentially, what is at stake is a multi-billion dollar undertaking.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, there will be a battle for the intellectual property rights pertaining to CRISPR-Cas9 technology, involving both US and Chinese corporate interests.<\/p>\n

While the Broad Institute was granted ownership of the\u00a0CRISPR-Cas9 patent by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, less than 3 months prior to Dr. He\u2019s announcement in Hong Kong, the ownership of CRISP is actively contested. The University of California at\u00a0Berkeley is also involved in the fight for patent ownership against the Cambridge based Broad Institute.\u00a0(Wired,<\/a> September 11, 2018).<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.\u00a0 He has taught as visiting professor in Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. He has served as economic adviser to governments of developing countries and has acted as a consultant for several international organizations. He is the author of eleven books including\u00a0<\/em>The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order\u00a0(2003<\/em>),\u00a0America\u2019s \u201cWar on Terrorism\u201d\u00a0(2005<\/em>),\u00a0The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the Twenty-first Century\u00a0(2009<\/em>) (Editor<\/em>),\u00a0Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War\u00a0(2011<\/em>), The Globalization of War, America’s Long War against Humanity (2015<\/em>). He is a contributor to the<\/em> Encyclopaedia Britannica.\u00a0 His writings have been published in more than twenty languages.\u00a0In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia. He can be reached at crgeditor@yahoo.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Prof Michel Chossudovsky<\/a>, Global Research, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Apr 2019 – The experiment raises important scientific and ethical issues. Human embryos are not commodities. The Chinese government immediately opened an investigation; Dr He Jiankui was fired by his University in January 2019. Despite government regulations and ethical issues, there are powerful corporate interests involved in the development and patenting of genetic editing of life forms including Dr. He\u2019s findings on \u201cgenetically modified babies\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":132605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[232,244,120,331,354,401,932,1055,723,304],"class_list":["post-132604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-capitalism","tag-china","tag-conflict","tag-development","tag-economics","tag-environment","tag-genetic-engineering","tag-genetic-manipulation","tag-research","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}