Chinese paper on embryo engineering splits scientific community | Science/AAAS

Chinese paper on embryo engineering splits scientific community | Science/AAAS The announcement that a Chinese team had altered the genetics of a human embryo for the first time has ignited a firestorm of controversy around the world and renewed recent calls for a moratorium on any attempt to establish a pregnancy with such an engineered embryo. But it has also underscored that although scientists are united in their opposition to any clinical application of such embryo manipulation, they are split on the value of basic research that involves genetically modifying human embryos. In China itself, where the precedent-setting research is big news and some in the public have expressed concern on the Internet about the embryo experiments, "most scientists are more positive," says Guo-Qiang Chen, a microbiologist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "My personal opinion is that as long as they can control the consequences they should continue this work.”http://news.sciencemag.org/asiapacific/2015/04/chinese-paper-embryo-engineering-splits-scientific-community?mc_cid=58f07aeaf0&mc_eid=5935182a65