Officials powerless to halt 'CRISPR babies' plan

Two influential leaders in science are condemning a Russian scientist's plan to produce gene-edited babies — but they're also conceding that it's beyond their authority to stop it. Margaret Hamburg, co-chair of an international advisory committee on human genome-editing, and Victor Dzau, president of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, said over the weekend that neither of their organizations has the power to intervene in biologist Denis Rebrikov's plans to edit human embryos. Hamburg, whose panel is operating under the auspices of the World Health Organization, said: “We would be very naive not to think [Rebrikov’s] work is not going forward. Read more.