Despite controversies, China follows same bioethical regulations as the West

[In 2015], Junjiu Huang and his research team at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genome of non-viable human embryos. The publication of that study generated a huge amount of controversy, with an article in the New York Times claiming: “medical researchers in China are stepping over ethical boundaries long accepted in the West.”

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[T]his view assumes that there is a substantial difference in standards between Western countries and their non-Western competitors. The Chinese research team were perceived to have succeeded in their scientific endeavor primarily because China was assumed to have little or no regulatory control over human embryo research.

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Contrary to what some initial media reports suggested, Huang’s study did not violate generally accepted international guidelines or even the regulatory requirements of scientifically advanced countries.

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Human embryo research is subject to ethical and regulatory controls in China, just as it is in Western countries. Indeed, apart from some procedural or workflow differences, the requirements that these controls give effect to don’t differ significantly from the requirements in international guidelines and in the regulatory provisions of countries that allow the research.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: CRISPR gene-editing controversy shows old ideas about East and West still prevail