This post originally appeared on the Center for Genetics and Society’s website on November 28, 2018.
To add your signature, please sign here or email your name and affiliation to info@geneticsandsociety.org .
The undersigned individuals and organizations wish to express our dismay and outrage at He Jiankui’s claims of creating genetically engineered babies. Though these claims are unverified, his actions violate a key provision of the concluding statement issued at the First International Summit on Human Gene Editing in 2015, that such dangerous experiments should not proceed until there was broad societal consensus in their favor.
That statement was intended to reassure civil society that the scientific community could regulate itself and prevent such reckless behavior. If the organizers of this week’s summit in Hong Kong wish to demonstrate that science is not out of control, and is worthy of public trust, now is the time for them and the rest of the international scientific community to act.
We urge that they (1) condemn in clear terms the rogue actions of the researcher who has taken it on himself to make a hugely consequential decision that affects all of us; and (2) call on governments and the United Nations to establish enforceable moratoria prohibiting reproductive experiments with human genetic engineering.
Such policies are necessary in order to ensure that we do not get into a runaway international competition for primacy in reproductive genetic engineering, leading to a new form of eugenics. If the summit and other scientific bodies do not act, it will fall to civil society and policy makers to do so, in order to ensure the avoidance of disastrous consequences for global society.
- David King, Human Genetics Alert
- Marcy Darnovsky, Center for Genetics and Society
- Katie Hasson, Center for Genetics and Society
To add your signature, please sign here or email your name and affiliation toinfo@geneticsandsociety.org .
INDIVIDUAL SIGNATORIES (Affiliation for Identification Purposes Only)
- Elisabeth Abergel, PhD, Department of sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
- Gen Acuna, Toronto Non-GMO Coalition; Kids Right To Know
- Roberto Andorno, PhD, University of Zurich, Switzerland
- George J. Annas, JD, MPH, Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health
- Dr. Michael Antoniou, King’s College London
- Lisa Archer, Friends of the Earth, US
- Simone Bateman, Emeritus Senior Researcher CNRS (Paris, France)
- Françoise Baylis, PhD, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
- Claire Beaudevin, PhD, CNRS, Paris France
- Diane Beeson, PhD, Professor Emerita, CSU East Bay
- Emily Smith Beitiks, PhD, Associate Director, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, San Francisco State University
- Kara Bensley, PhD, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
- Jennifer Berman Diaz, Founder, Toronto Non-GMO Coalition
- Rajani Bhatia, PhD, University at Albany
- Claire Bleakley, President, GE-free NZ in Food & Environment
- Catherine Bliss, PhD, UCSF Social Behavioral Sciences
- Lars Bolund, PhD, BGI/Lars Bolund Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Qingdao, China and Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Catherine Bourgain, PhD, Sciences Citoyennes and Inserm Human Geneticist
- Paula Braveman, MD, MPH, University of California, San Francisco
- W. Malcolm Byrnes, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC
- Erika M. Brown, MPH, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
- Alexander M. Capron, JD, University Professor and Professor of Law and Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
- Alana Cattapan, PhD, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
- Katayoun Chamany, PhD, Mohn Family Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Eugene Lang College at The New School
- Gail Chester, Breaking the Frame, London
- Daniel Cook, PhD, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada Reno
- Marsha J. Tyson Darling, PhD, Professor & Director, Center for African, Black & Caribbean Studies, Adelphi University
- Katherine Weatherford Darling, PhD, Department of Social Science, University of Maine at Augusta
- Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Center for Genetics and Society
- Roni Diamant-Wilson, PhD
- Donna Dickenson, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities, University of London
- Ole Doering, PhD, Institute for Global Health, Berlin, Germany
- Katherine Drabiak, JD, Assistant Professor, College of Public Health, University of South Florida
- Elaine Draper, PhD, JD, Professor of Sociology and Director, Law and Society Program, California State University, Los Angeles
- Justine Durrell
- Irina Ermakova, Professor of Biology, Moscow, Russia
- George Estreich, Author
- Dr. Fleur Fisher, Former Head of Ethics, Science and Information at British Medical Association (1991-96)
- Kevin Fitzgerald, S.J., PhD, Creighton University School of Medicine
- Sarah Forthal, Columbia University
- Joan H. Fujimura, PhD, Martindale-Bascom Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Katy Fulfer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies, University of Waterloo
- Alexander Gaguine, Appleton Foundation
- Ben Gaia, Dialatree New Zealand
- Emily Galpern, MPH, Public Health Consultant
- Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, PhD, Professor of English & bioethics, Founding Director, Disability Studies Initiative, Emory University
- Landon J. Getz, PhD Candidate, Dalhousie University
- Alan Goodman, PhD, Professor of Biological Anthropology, Hampshire College
- Laurie Goodman, PhD, Editor-in-Chief GigaScience
- Samantha D. Gottlieb, PhD, MHS, Medical Anthropologist
- Zelka Linda Grammer, GE Free Northland, Aotearoa/ NZ
- Rosann Greenspan, PhD, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley
- Jeremy Gruber, JD, Former President, Council for Responsible Genetics
- Hille Haker, PhD, Richard McCormick Endowed Chair of Ethics, Loyola University Chicago
- Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director for Human Genetics, International Center for Technology Assessment
- Janet A. Hart, MA, PhD, MCPHS University, Boston, Massachusetts
- Michael Harvey, DrPhH, Assistant Professor of Public Health, San Jose State University
- Katie Hasson, PhD, Center for Genetics and Society
- Richard Hayes, PhD, Executive Director emeritus, Center for Genetics and Society
- Alexandra Henrion Caude, PhD, Science-En Conscience and Inserm Human Geneticist
- Sabrina Hermosilla, PhD, Columbia University
- Elisabeth Hildt, PhD, Illinois Institute of Technology
- Craig Holdrege, PhD, Director and Senior Researcher, The Nature Institute of Ghent, NY
- Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory
- Lisa C. Ikemoto, JD, UC Davis School of Law
- Patricia Jennings, PhD, Professor of Sociology, CSU East Bay
- Chris Kaposy, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioethics, Memorial University
- Trica Keaton, PhD, Dartmouth College
- David King, PhD, Human Genetics Alert
- Brewster Kneen, Economist and author
- Regine Kollek, Prof., Hamburg University
- Nancy Krieger, PhD, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Liz Kroboth, MPH, Lecturer, San Francisco State University
- Sharon Labchuk, Earth Action Canada
- Martine Lappé, PhD, Science, Technology, and Society Program, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
- Heather Lee, No More GMOs Toronto
- Martha Livingston, PhD, Chair and Professor, Public Health, SUNY Old Westbury
- Leah Lowthorp, PhD, University of Oregon
- Calum MacKellar, PhD, Director of Research, Scottish Council on Human Bioethics
- Laura Mamo, PhD, Health Equity Institute Professor, San Francisco State University
- Rev. Bronica Martindale-Taylor, BA, Health Educator
- Becky A. McClain, Alliance for Humane Biotechnology
- Noémie Merleau-Ponty, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
- Miroslav Mikolasik, Member of the European Parliament
- Jessica Milne, MPH, Research Foundation of CUNY
- Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD, University of Michigan
- Jon Muller, Secretary, GE-free NZ in Food & Environment
- Stuart Newman, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology & Anatomy, New York Medical College
- Trang Quynh Nguyen, Assistant Scientist, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Judy Norsigian, Co-founder and Board chair, Our Bodies Ourselves
- Osagie K. Obasogie, PhD, JD, Haas Distinguished Chair and Professor of Bioethics, UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program, School of Public Health
- Archana Pandya, OpenGlobalRights
- Brendan Parent, JD, Director of Applied Bioethics, New York University
- Stuart Parkinson, Dr, Scientists for Global Responsibility, UK
- Elena Pasca, Philosopher, Editor of Pharmacritique, Founder of the AVEAG Victim Association, France
- Helena Paul, Co-Director, EcoNexus
- Hervé Perdry, PhD, Human Geneticist, Université Paris-Sud
- Beth N. Peshkin, MS, LCGC, Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
- David Petrasek, PhD, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa
- Angel Petropanagos, PhD, Quality Improvement Ethicist, William Osler Health System
- Bob Phelps, Executive Director, Gene Ethics, Australia
- Catherine Powell, Alliance for Humane Biotechnology
- Carolyn D. Prouty, DVM, Faculty, Public Health and Health Sciences, The Evergreen State College
- Rhadika Rao, JD, Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, University of California, Hastings College of Law, San Francisco, California
- Elizabeth Reis, PhD, Macaulay Honors College, CUNY
- Claire Robinson, Editor, GMWatch
- Ann Rojas-Cheatham
- Hilary Rose, PhD, Professor Emerita of Social Policy, University of Bradford
- Lisa Rubin, PhD, New School for Social Research
- Jade S. Sasser, PhD, University of California, Riverside
- Marsha Saxton, PhD, Director of Research, World Institute on Disability; Lecturer, Disability Studies Program, UC Berkeley
- Pete Shanks, Author
- Tom Sheahen, PhD, Director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology
- Stephen Shmanske, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Economics, California State University, East Bay
- MaryAnn Sorensen Allacci, PhD, Projects for Environmental Health, Knowledge, & Action, Inc.
- Malcolm Steinberg
- Tina Stevens, PhD, Alliance for Humane Biotechnology
- Alexander Stingl, Collège d’études mondiales
- Yeyang Su, a concerned member of our shared humanity
- Sun Wenyu, MD, Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS
- José A. Tapia, MD, MPH, PhD(Econ), Associate Professor, Department of Politics, Drexel University
- Peter Taylor, PhD, Director, Science in a Changing World graduate track, University of Massachusetts at Boston
- Jacques Testart, Biologist, Honorary Senior Researcher Inserm (Paris, France)
- Jim Thomas, ETC Group
- Sheila R. Tully, PhD, Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University
- France Winddance Twine, PhD, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Mary Anne Urlakis, MA, PhD, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Donum Vitae Institute
- Britta van Beers, VU University Amsterdam Law School
- Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, PhD, Honorary President, The Club of Rome and Past Co-Chair, International Resource Panel, UNEP
- Gabriele Werner-Felmayer, PhD, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria
- Alice Wong, Founder and Director, Disability Visibility Project
- Britt Wray, PhD
- Alicia Ely Yamin, JD, MPH, Georgetown University Law Center and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
- Weilan Ye, PhD, Head of the Vascular Biology Program, Molecular Oncology Division, Genentech Inc.
- Silvia Yee, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
- Luming Zhou, PhD, Department of Pathology, University of Utah
Individual Signatures Received after December 1, 2018
- Haiming Chen, PhD, Director of the Center for Global Governance and Law, Xiamen University of Technology, China
- Boris Pinto, Bosque University
- Lilia Wang, A Caring Global Citizen
- Qing Huang, Ms
- Suman Sahai, Uttaranchal
- Margarida Silva, Portuguese Catholic University
- Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, CUNY School of Medicine
- Katie Stoll, Genetic Support Foundation, Washington
- Ana Perincic
- Mahendra Singh, PhD, Freelance Science communicator (www.mahendrasingh.co), India
- Ruha Benjamin, PhD, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University
- Jo Ann Egan
- Mylene Botbol Baum, PhD, UCLouvain
ORGANIZATIONS
- Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
- Center for Genetics and Society
- Earth Action Canada
- FOODwatch Western Australia
- Friends of the Earth, Australia
- Friends of the Earth, US
- GE Free Northland, Aotearoa/NZ
- GE-free NZ in Food & Environment
- Genetic Support Foundation
- GM Watch
- Human Genetics Alert
- Sciences Citoyennes
- Scientists for Global Responsibility, UK
- Vigilance OGM, Canada