Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library/Getty
WHEN presenting his work at the global gene-editing summit, He Jiankui noted the medical seriousness of HIV infection, saying he was proud of his efforts to use CRISPR to create infants that may be resistant to the virus.
Is HIV so dangerous that it warrants such a drastic step? Certainly, the toll of HIV infection is high in some parts of the world. But advances in antiviral medicines over the past decade mean that people with HIV who have access to good healthcare now have a close-to-normal lifespan. The HIV-positive fathers who …