China has announced new rules aimed at preventing ethically problematic research on humans.
It has been 5 years since biophysicist, He Jiankui, generated worldwide outrage by announcing he had helped create genetically edited babies.
The regulations require ethics reviews of research involving human materials including tissue, fertilised eggs and embryos, and revise previous regulations adopted in 2016 in response to concerns arising from the unauthorised creation of genetically edited babies in 2018.
The rules, which apply to government and academic institutions but not to private firms, were developed by four state agencies and are aimed at striking a balance between enabling scientific research and protecting human subjects.
Some commentators suggest that the rules don’t go far enough because private institutions do not have to follow the guidelines.
Read more >In wake of gene-edited baby scandal, China sets new ethics rules for human studies
