A Chinese scientist shocked the world in November when he reported — through a well-coordinated media campaign that involved an AP exclusive and YouTube videos — that he’d created the world’s first babies genetically edited with CRISPR: a set of twin girls, with a third CRISPR baby on the way.

Two months later, a Chinese government investigation has found He Jiankui “seriously violated” state laws in pursuit of “personal fame and fortune.” According to a January 21 report from the Xinhua state news agency, he avoided supervision, faked an ethical review, and used potentially unsafe and ineffective gene editing methods on the children.

…

But some of He’s peers in science, who work on gene editing and ethics, also aren’t happy with the experiment. He broke a scientific taboo to edit out a disease that’s now highly treatable — using a potentially dangerous and unproven technique. Hank Greely, a Stanford law and ethics professor, called the experiment “reckless [because] of a terrible benefit/risk ratio for the baby.” Others have called the experiment “monstrous,” “unconscionable” and “premature,” and 122 Chinese scientists wrote a joint statement denouncing the work.