To her parents, she is a dream come true.

To her 14-year-old sister, and others who have thalassemia, a life-threatening blood disorder, she offers hope of a future.

To medical workers, she represents a significant milestone in domestic medical research.

Thirteen-day-old Boxi is a "designer baby", genetically selected as her stem cells can be used to save her sister.

We wish a healthy and beautiful life for Boxi, and hope she succeeds in her life-saving mission. Yet we should not turn a blind eye to the fact that there is a need to manage genetic screening.

With the help of in vitro fertilization treatment, Boxi's mother conceived 12 embryos, of which two were found to be healthy. Boxi came into being with the help of preimplantation genetic diagnosis or selection so she could help her sister.

The embryo screening enabled medical workers to determine she doesn't have the mutated genes her sister has.

While the screening process was necessary, there are considerable ethical implications.

We are probably far away from the sci-fi scenarios of made-to-order babies, but both the idea and practice of genetic screening and manipulation of the human genome are rife with ethical and legal complications.

Like many other scientific and technological achievements, genetic screening is neutral. But just as it can be used to choose an embryo that will aid a sibling with a genetic disorder, it can also be used for many other purposes. For instance, determining a child will be of the desired sex.

Given the potential for abuse, moral and legal boundaries must be drawn up to regulate the use of genetic screening.

Meanwhile, the possibilities of genetic manipulation are only limited by our imagination and our ethics, and this needs to be carefully supervised. After all, in spite of the known benefits we do not know the potential risks, nor the possible consequences of abuse.

The only reliable precaution, therefore, is extreme caution.

(China Daily 07/12/2012 page8)