Competitive Culture Brings Out the Worst in Scientists
The Chinese “Crispr babies” researcher so badly wanted to be a pioneer that he ignored ethical boundaries. Others win a Nobel and think it’s a license to rant.
He Jiankui, the researcher condemned worldwide for unethical gene editing.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
The researcher claiming to have created the first gene-edited babies might be afflicted with a form of ethical Dunning-Kruger syndrome — ignorance of one’s own ignorance. In interviews and a promotional YouTube video, He Jiankui telegraphed faith that his experiment will be remembered as a pioneering feat and a landmark in medical progress.
The field as a whole condemned this use of gene editing as unethical and criminally negligent. But even so, the episode should prompt scientists to take a good hard look in the mirror.