Read the passage given below and then answer the questions given below the passage. Some words may be highlighted for your attention. Read carefully. A Chinese scientist’s surprise announcement on the eve of an international human gene-editing summit that he has already created the world&rsqu

Read the passage given below and then answer the questions given below the passage. Some words may be highlighted for your attention. Read carefully.

A Chinese scientist’s surprise announcement on the eve of an international human gene-editing summit that he has already created the world’s first gene-edited babies has led to swift denunciation.

Jiankui He is expected to discuss his work November 28 in Hong Kong at the second International Summit on Human Genome Editing. But in an interview with the Associated Press, and in a video posted November 25, He announced that twin girls with an edited gene that reduces the risk of contracting HIV “came crying into this world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago.”

That announcement sparked outrage from many researchers and ethicists who say implanting edited embryos to create babies is premature and exposes the children to unnecessary health risks. Opponents also fear the creation of “designer babies,” children edited to enhance their intelligence, athleticism or other traits.

He, on unpaid leave from the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen since February, objects to the term designer baby. “Call them ‘gene surgery babies’ if one must or better yet ordinary people who have had surgery to save their life or prevent a disease,” He and colleagues wrote in a perspective published online November 26 in the CRISPR Journal. But in the video, He said that he realizes his work will be controversial, and he’s willing to take the criticism. Some families need the technology to have healthy children, He said, adding that enhancing intelligence or changing hair or eye color are “not things loving parents do” and should be banned.

Yet many researchers and ethicists argue that He’s editing of the twin’s DNA was not lifesaving nor does it prevent disease. Although the girls’ father has HIV, there are safer ways to protect someone from contracting the virus, which makes the engineering both unnecessary and unethical.

The scientists involved in the announcement “have knowingly violated the ethical norms surrounding this technology,” says Josephine Johnston, a lawyer and bioethicist at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, N.Y. The researchers are aware that the scientific community thinks that gene editing is still not safe or appropriate for use in human embryos. “You could even wonder whether they’re doing this for attention,” she says.

At least one prominent gene-editing researcher, Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has now called for a moratorium on producing gene-edited babies until researchers can establish safety requirements. Hundreds of Chinese scientists have signed letters condemning the work and calling for greater oversight of gene-editing experiments.

Chinese authorities are also questioning the research. Shenzhen City Medical Ethics Expert Board said in a statement that it is investigating the case, and the hospital cited in documents describing the experiment has denied that the work was done there. He’s university said in a statement November 26 that the work “seriously violates academic ethics and academic norms,” and announced that it will launch an investigation.

In another video, He said that his group used the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 to disable the CCR5 gene in the fertilized eggs that produced the babies, called “Lulu” and “Nana” (not their real names). CCR5 produces a protein that allows the most common version of the HIV virus to enter cells. Some people naturally have mutations in the gene that help protect them from HIV infection. Such “gene surgery” has already proven safe in adults with HIV, He said in the video. HIV infection is still a deadly disease and in the developing world, “discrimination increases the devastation,” He said. Gene editing could spare such children from their parents’ fate, He claims.

But the chance that Lulu and Nana would get HIV from their father when their mother doesn’t have the virus is “almost zero. In fact, probably zero,” says Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. The children could easily avoid HIV infection by other means, so “to put them through the risk of editing their genes as embryos to protect them from infection they can easily prevent themselves, in my mind, is inappropriate at best and unethical at worst.”

He’s work has not been published in a scientific journal, and other researchers have not gotten access to any data or DNA samples that could confirm He’s claim. Previous claims of successful gene editing in human embryos in lab dishes have also been met with skepticism.

Verifying the editing would require thoroughly examining, or sequencing, the DNA of the twins and their parents, says Arthur Beaudet, a geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. That verification might be possible because the Chinese researchers say that the embryos were sequenced before being implanted into the mother’s uterus and again after birth. But it may be harder to determine whether CRISPR/Cas9 has caused any mutations that may later harm the children, Beaudet says.

Children often naturally develop DNA changes that their parents don’t carry. Beaudet and colleagues are conducting experiments with mice to determine whether gene editing leads to more of these new mutations than usual, he says. Such animal research and work on human embryos that won’t be used to create a pregnancy are necessary before researchers should even consider making gene-edited babies, he says.

Which of the following word is the MOST OPPOSITE in meaning to the word SKEPTICISM as given in the passage?

1).

Apprehension

2). Hesitation
3). Certitude
4). Leeriness