Jail for editing the DNA of embryos to prevent HIV and class actions against Shaw and the University of Victoria

Three Chinese scientists were sentenced to jail for editing the genes of three fetuses in an attempt to provide immunity from HIV. The scientist used CRISPR in an attempt to disable the gene that allows the HIV virus to enter a cell. 

The fathers of the children, who appear to be healthy, had HIV. Their mothers did not. 

The three scientists announced what they had done at a 2018 conference in Hong Kong and, shortly thereafter, disappeared. They had been in Chinese custody and were recently sentenced to between two and three years in jail, after they plead guilty to practicing medicine without a licence, at a non-public hearing.

The concern with the activity of the scientists is that the genetic changes they made to the fetuses were subject to being passed along to future generations, and the effects are not known. 

In Canada, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act prohibits the alteration of “the genome of a cell of a human being in vitro embryo such that the alteration is capable of being transmitted to descendants” in. Doing so is punishable by up to five years in jail. 

Other things prohibited, by this act in Canada, include the creation of human-animal hybrids, the transplantation of human fetuses into animals, or animals or animal fetuses into humans. It is also unlawful to “maintain an embryo outside the body of a female person after the fourteenth day of its development following fertilization or creation, excluding any time during which its development has been suspended”.

Also discussed on the show are two proposed class actions. 

One proposed class action, against Shaw, alleges that Shaw participated in an “unlawful pricing scheme” involving routine discrimination against existing and potential customers by offering a discounted rate exclusively to individuals who communicated with Shaw in either Mandarin and/or Cantonese. 

Shaw denies the allegation and was successful in an application for a summary trial, prior to deciding on an application for the certification of the claim as a class action.

The other class action involved a successful appeal to the British Columbia Court of appeal, in order to certify a class action on behalf of employees of the University of Victoria, who were subjected to a wage freeze from 2013 – 2016 as a result of an emailed direction from the then Minister of Finance.

Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the cases discussed.

Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan is live on CFAX 1070 Thursdays at 10:30 am.