Scientists urge pause in editing human genes

Call is latest response to controversial experiment by Chinese researcher

More than a dozen top scientists and ethicists from seven countries are calling for a temporary global ban on editing the human germline - heritable DNA in sperm, eggs or embryos - to produce babies.

They published a commentary on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, led by Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and co-authored by a group of Chinese researchers, including Shao Feng, deputy director at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, and Li Jinsong, professor at Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.