On November 26, 2018 (October 19, 2018 in the lunar calendar), a gene-edited baby was born, and human civilization entered a new era. A pair of gene-edited babies named Lulu and Nana were born in China in November Immune AIDS gene-edited babies On November 26, 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced that the first immune AIDS gene-edited baby was born healthily in China. Previously, Stephen Hawking predicted that rich people would pay special attention to the choice of the other half when choosing a spouse. They believed that by combining each other's excellent genes, a group of better children might be born. At the same time, they also wanted to choose the excellent genes between them through scientific and technological means. And those ordinary people who have no way to choose to modify their genes will be slowly excluded from this excellent society and can no longer compete with those "super humans". This day finally came, and the news shocked the whole society like a thunder. The shock was so great that many scientists came out to condemn it, and many doctors also expressed their opposition. Sociologists and ethicists from all walks of life came out to condemn. Whether it is political change or technological change, the old school and the ignorant always oppose new things for their own interests, and are eventually eliminated by new things or forced to accept new things. This cycle has been repeated round after round since ancient times. We are born in an era full of technological change, and it is a great blessing to have the opportunity to witness the innovation of science and technology to transform society. Gene editing is a more accurate technology to change biological genes than transgenes, which can delete and write target genes. In layman's terms, it means to hit wherever you want. This is a huge biological advance, giving humans the first opportunity to determine their own pace of evolution. However, now we are facing a lot of doubts, denials and curses. Whenever a great technology is born, it is not unusual for naturalists and ethics to send mantis-like opposition, trains, alternating current, nuclear technology, cloning technology, genetic modification, and gene editing to suffer the same experience. Photo courtesy of He Jiankui Laboratory The opposition conspiracy and ethics of gene editing technology are unnaturally the three magic weapons for commenting on the development of biotechnology. For example, western medicine is a conspiracy, surgery is unethical, and therapy is unnatural. GMO is an American conspiracy, unethical, not natural plant. Cloning technology is conspiracy, ethically problematic and unnatural. If you don't understand biotechnology and still want to speak, use this syllogism. There are three main kinds of people who oppose the progress of modern science and technology. First, the ignorant naturalists' reason is that they don't conform to nature. By their standards, society should not develop. Burning wood, riding ox carts, seeing Chinese medicine practitioners and writing letters are normal human life. If you invent fire, you will offend the gods and lose your vitality by surgery. Those who change organs are even more sorry for the old adage that "the body, hair and skin are affected by the parents". In fact, according to the standards of naturalism, ancient society was not "natural". Human ancestors shouldn't have come down from trees and walked upright in the first place. Because everyone is on all fours, wouldn't you expose the target and attract the lion if you stand up yourself? Wouldn't everyone stand up and be eaten by lions to kill genocide?. According to the logic of naturalism, there should be no human beings, because almost everything human evolution has done in the process of evolution is anti-natural. Birth, old age, illness and death are natural, and going to the hospital to see a doctor is counter-natural, because there is no hospital for any animal in nature. 2. The hypocritical ethical school yesterday, a group of medical researchers came out to issue a joint statement denouncing it. I won't take screenshots if it's too long. There is a sentence in the second paragraph: "It is because of the uncertainty of off-target, other huge risks and more important ethics". Looking at their tone, they are like timid literati, not like scientific researchers at all. The most concerned thing turned out to be ethics. Do you turn a blind eye to so many ethical issues in the medical field? 1. Is it ethical to use patients to test drugs in phase III clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry? 2. In vitro babies made by frozen sperm and eggs, why don't you worry about genetic mutation "mixing into the human gene pool"? Why does the hospital still open this business? 3. Every year, more than 10 million healthy babies without deformity in China are aborted by your hospital. What they do is intentional homicide. You don't talk about ethics. In order to prevent AIDS inheritance, patients do gene editing, and you come out to talk about medical ethics. Is it ethical for gene-edited babies to undergo surgery and patients to strip naked? Are male gynecologists, organ transplantation and cosmetic surgery ethical? There are too many unethical things done in the medical community. Such a huge progress was described by them in the third paragraph as a blow to the global reputation and development of Chinese biomedicine. What is their intention? Or jealousy that He Jiankui robbed the first credit?. Those who oppose it are all Chinese/Chinese, and the wood is beautiful in the forest, and the wind will destroy it. You are all worried about the reliability of technology, not the values of direction. Hypocritical ethics in the name of ethics hinders technological progress and attempts. How to verify reliability without the first person to eat crabs? Some moral virgins say that gene editing aggravates unfairness. If gene editing is not used, is it fair to children born sick? Should those with genetic diseases be inherited forever, or let them die? Don't talk about ethics at this time? Third, unreasonable conspiracy theorists who advocate conspiracy theories never come up with evidence, but just use people's natural fear of risk to attract attention. In their eyes, everything can be a conspiracy, and they basically belong to patients with mental illness. There is no discussion value, so not much to say. There is also a faction that opposes the invention of guns because of self-interest. Buying a gun can instantly kill the fist and foot skills that have been practiced for decades, and martial arts masters will oppose it. Nuclear weapons can destroy even mountains of conventional weapons. Everyone without nuclear weapons will oppose it. Those with high IQ are afraid that their next generation will be tied by the next generation of ordinary people. They are against gene editing. The next generation of beautiful women who are afraid of ugly women has become beautiful, and their genes are easily tied by others. They oppose gene editing. All they care about is their own interests. If you can be sure that your offspring will be born immune to diseases, smart and beautiful, they will immediately rush to use it. Expecting gene editing technology to benefit human beings. Gene editing is the first step for mankind to move towards a new era. Gene editing is used well for the benefit of mankind. If you don't use it properly, it will cause tragedy. But the general direction will be used better and better. 1. In order to survive human beings now, gene editing is needed. Gene editing creates high-yield laying hens, pigs, and various ingredients. Isn't this a great thing? Create a plant that absorbs and transforms pollutants. Drought-tolerant plants transform deserts. Waterlogging-tolerant plants keep soil and water. Isn't this benefiting mankind? 2. For the future development of human scientific and technological civilization, gene editing is even more needed. The evolution of human brain has completely failed to keep up with the development speed of science and technology. Look at how old the Nobel Prize winners are. In order for mankind to continue to develop science and technology, gene editing is also needed to create smarter humans. Otherwise, the speed of scientific and technological progress will slow down and eventually come to stagnation. Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Gauss, Euler... these scientists are too few. How many years can one be produced? 3. In order for future generations of human beings to adapt to other planets in the future, gene editing technology should also be developed. Gene editing creates special plants to transform the alien environment and prepare for human interstellar immigration. The Ministry of Science and Technology responded to the "gene-edited baby" incident: it is explicitly prohibited to deal with the Ethical Guiding Principles for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research promulgated in 2003. It stipulates that gene editing and modification of human embryos can be carried out for the purpose of research, but the in vitro culture period shall not exceed 14 days from fertilization or nuclear transfer. If this "gene-edited baby" is confirmed to have been born, it is explicitly prohibited and will be dealt with in accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations. It seems that the first person to eat crabs is out of luck. To sum up, gene editing technology doesn't matter if it is good or bad. The question is how to use it and how to use it. In fact, only one question can make the opposition collapse instantly. If gene editing technology has 99.9% reliability, it can make your offspring smart, strong, beautiful, immune to various diseases, have various talents and live a long life. Do you need it? As long as you want future generations to have these things, no matter how opposed you are, you will eventually jump off the high ground of ethics, nature and morality and rush to gene editing technology. I predict that there will be gene editing companies in the future, and children's skin color, appearance, and even IQ can be changed. Ancient political transformation was a war between traditional aristocratic forces and civilians. The modern gene war is the war between traditional superior genes and ordinary genes. The birth of a gene-edited baby officially fired the first shot of the gene war. Do princes and generals Xiangning have the seed? Gene editing, everyone has the kind.