There are proper procedures for these sorts of experiments that were not followed.

No amount of domain knowledge offsets malpractice, which is factually what occurred here, regardless of outcome.

Just because I have significant experience in systems engineering and administration, and we have no testing environment that would work as an accurate "clone" of reality, doesn't mean that I just get to ignore proper procedure and make changes to my work environment as I wish.

Even when I have the knowledge to know the risks, potential problems, can map out the potential outcomes, etc. I still have to follow proper procedure. Sometimes that means creating test scenarios to approximate reality, sometimes that means that I simply cannot move forward until a suitable testing environment exists.

Either way, as a knowledgable professional, there are proper processes that must be followed.

These are much more dire in the realm of medicine than computers.

Personally, my metric for "success" on this is when they die of old age with no complications that could possibly be related to the genetic manipulation. Is your metric so low that the fact they have no reported complications this early in life means success?

If he had not been successful would you be as defensive of him? The children are still children, with a lifetime of potential complications left that may or may not occur.