Research ethics: a safeguard for advanced technologies

With the fast development of cutting-edge technologies and their greater integration into human life, more ethical challenges emerge. The problem became more salient when the world's first genetically edited babies were born in China in violation of existing ethical rules. Although the responsible researcher He Jiankui was sentenced for imprisonment for three years last December, it is still necessary to examine the current status of research ethics and the challenges in China. Has China set up a sophisticated research ethics system? For research ethics and their implementation in China, are there unique national characteristics? Can the dominant ethics principles primarily developed from life science research be equally adopted in the emerging artificial intelligence research and development? At an online forum organized by National Science Review (NSR) and through subsequent correspondences among forum participants, NSR Executive Editor-in-Chief Mu-ming Poo and guest moderator Hepeng Jia asked three scientists and three bioethicists or philosophers of science and technology in the field to examine the dynamic development of research ethics in China. Weiwen DuanPhilosopher of Science and Technology at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Junjiu HuangLife scientist focused on genetics at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China Renzong QiuBioethicist at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Qiang SunLife scientist and the principal investigator (PI) of clone monkey program at Shanghai Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China Yi ZengArtificial intelligence scientist at Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Xiaomei ZhaiBioethicist at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China Mu-ming Poo (Chair)Neurobiologist at Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China Hepeng Jia (Co-chair)Professor of Science Communication at Soochow University, Suzhou, China.