The Chinese gene-editing experiment was an outrage. The scientific community shares blame.

This is the experiment that was not supposed to happen.

A Chinese scientist claimed this week that he had produced the first genetically engineered babies — twin girls who have been “edited” to be resistant to HIV. He and his collaborators, who apparently include a professor at Rice University in Houston, allegedly applied the genome editing tool known as CRISPR to embryos produced through in vitro fertilization to modify a gene called CCR5. The purpose of the edit was to prevent future HIV infection, a move akin to a genetic vaccination.