He Jiankui's 2018 CRISPR babies remain the single most flagrant breach of gene-editing ethics. By editing the CCR5 gene in human embryos to confer HIV resistance, he produced the first gene-edited humans—twin girls—and was sentenced to three years in prison. This case outpaces #2 in controversy by directly violating global moratoriums, as the edits introduced unintended mutations and raised safety risks that remain uninvestigated. A 2022 Nature study found that one twin's cells showed off-target edits in over 15 genes, underscoring the recklessness of skipping established protocols.
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