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Furnetics Unlimited Ltd. today condemned the reported work of Chinese researcher He Jiankui, who this week said he had used CRISPR to edit the genomes of twin girls as embryos in an attempt to make them resistant to HIV. The announcement, made as genome-editing researchers met at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong, has been condemned across the scientific community as premature, medically unjustified, and a reckless step into heritable human editing.

“Editing a human embryo is a line we will not go near. This work rewrote children who could not consent, using a crude ‘scalpel of no’.”

— Dr. Alastair Vellacott, Founder & Chief Executive

A governance change and a written pledge

Furnetics said it was strengthening its governance in response. Effective immediately, Dr. Nadia Corvin becomes the corporation's first Chief Ethics Officer, reporting to the board and coordinating with the Independent Ethics Board constituted in June 2014. Furnetics has, at the same time, added a No-Editing Pledge to its charter: a written commitment never to add, remove, or rewrite a single base pair of a human embryo.

The pledge covers editing. It does not mention Genetic Select™, the company's human trait-selection service, because, as Furnetics was careful to explain, selection is not editing.

“Dr. He wrote new instructions into a child. We write nothing. Genetic Select™ is just good parenting, moved a little earlier. Families conceive on their own, and we help them see which of their embryos will thrive. Every family deserves their best possible child, and we simply make sure that's the one they bring home.”

— Dr. Nadia Corvin, Chief Ethics & Governance Officer

Genetic Select: an expanded trait report

Genetic Select's trait report, originally limited to disease risk under the eligibility framework published at the line's opening in September 2014, now also covers height, temperament, and cognitive aptitude. Furnetics describes these as information rather than instruction, and notes that choosing among one's own embryos is legal, widely offered, and alters nothing. The screening panel, its supplementary panels, and the ART-partner accreditation exchange described at the line's opening continue on their existing terms; today's expansion adds only the three trait categories above to the written report delivered to prospective parents and their nominated clinician.

Genetic Select™ remains open to new clients at the corporation's Ulaanbaatar campus.

“Anyone can edit. The discipline is in refusing to. We help families choose. We do not build to order.”

— Dr. Alastair Vellacott, Founder & Chief Executive