China, Unhampered by Rules, Races Ahead in Gene-Editing Trials (wsj.com)

U.S. scientists helped devise the Crispr biotechnology tool. First to test it in humans are Chinese doctors (Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative link). WSJ reports: In a hospital west of Shanghai, Wu Shixiu since March has been trying to treat cancer patients using a promising new gene-editing tool. U.S. scientists helped devise the tool, known as Crispr-Cas9, which has captured global attention since a 2012 report said it can be used to edit DNA. Doctors haven't been allowed to use it in human trials in America. That isn't the case for Dr. Wu and others in China. In a quirk of the globalized technology arena, Dr. Wu can forge ahead with the tool because he faces few regulatory hurdles to testing it on humans. [...] There is little doubt China was first out of the block testing Crispr on humans. Nine trials in China are listed in a U.S. National Library of Medicine database. The Wall Street Journal found at least two other hospital trials, including one beginning in 2015 -- a year earlier than previously reported. Journal reporting found at least 86 Chinese patients have had their genes edited.

Comments

Job Killing Regulations

[sdinfoserv]

Unhampered by "Job Killing" rules like clean air, clean water, intellectual property, and child labor laws, China has claimed top global growth rankings for the past 2 decades...
Now live with it... or try anyway.

Re:Job Killing Regulations

[Solandri]

That's actually relevant. The price you pay for protective regulation is a slower rate of technological development. Short-term, this doesn't mean much and it's "obvious" that the regulations are superior.

But long-term... If clean air laws increase lifespan by x years, but lack of clean air laws allows technology to advance so people end up with more than x years of additional leisure time over their lifetime, which is really better?

I don't honestly know the answer. I don't even know if we can figure out the answer (since we're talking about guessing at what technological breakthroughs will happen in the future). But if you're judging the merit of clean air/water regulations based solely on whether you prefer clean air/water or not, then your analysis is overly simplistic.

China's decision was a bit easier since they were behind the developed world technologically - they could see the beneficial technologies they were going to get in this bargain. They made a decision to sacrifice something like 10 years of life expectancy, in order to make up a 40 year deficit in technology and catch up to first world nations. If they decide to clean up their air and water now, that 10 year sacrifice in lifespan will only have affected one or two generations, while the 40 year jump in technology will benefit all future generations to come. They probably think that bargain was worth it.

Re:China China China

[gfxguy]

We REGULATE because we care about the harm evil corporations will do to people.

And fuck you if you're on your death bed, you're NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION. It's for your own good!

Re:Some Dare Call It Treason

[Anonymous Coward]

Mengele would have loved you.

Re:China China China

[nine-times]

And fuck you if you're on your death bed, you're NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISION. It's for your own good!

It's not just for your own good. We don't really know what these gene altering technologies will do-- either on a technical scientific level, or on a sociological level. Lots of technologies seem harmless enough at the outset, and people ask, "What could possibly go wrong?" Part of the problem is, the things that go wrong are often not things we even suspected might go wrong.

Re:More government regulations holding us back

[iamhassi]

lol trump win is the biggest oxymoron ever

can't wait until the revolution and we round fucksticks like you up in camps

The revolution by people that think guns are icky and gross? Yeah that will be a very short revolution

Re:China China China

[rahvin112]

Damn straight, we should absolutely allow unproven and experimental techniques to be used that will expose the patient to immense pain and immediate death.

Do you realize at all how experimental this stuff is? They haven't even done it on MICE yet. Crisper was developed like 3 years ago. They are still experimenting with bacteria. You think the appropriate action is to jump right to humans?

What you might not know is someone jumped to humans a decade ago without proper protocols, someone experimenting with viruses rewriting someone's DNA killed a 20 year old volunteer in the US. He spent an agonizing 24hrs in intensive care with total organ failure before he died.

The problem is we don't even understand the implications of using CRISPR on live people let alone live animals yet. You could immediately kill the person.

Re:More government regulations holding us back

[DNS-and-BIND]

Human rights track record? What's not to like about a country that has initiated more wars and armed intrusions than any other in the past century and killed a few million people in the process; has manipulated and interfered in 81 elections in other countries; has stationed its troops in more than 100 countries around the world; bombed 8 Mid East and North African countries in the past 20 years, has insulted literally every ethnic and religious group in its own country (except white, Christian, obese coal workers) and every major nation around the world; already has or is going to pull out of numerous international agreements; blackmails and bullies countries as it wishes; runs the most expensive espionage apparatus to spy on its own people and "fights terrorism" by tapping foreign allies, the Vatican and the UN.

How many countries has China invaded? As a very great man once said, "No Chinaman ever called me n*gger."