Hip Redux
At first I thought this might be an Onion article or something, but nope.
Dad May Join Two Moms for Disease-Free Designer BabiesFull storyA new technology aimed at eliminating genetic disease in newborns would combine the DNA of three people, instead of just two, to create a child, potentially redrawing ethical lines for designer babies.The process works by replacing potentially variant DNA in the unfertilized eggs of a hopeful mother with disease-free genes from a donor. U.S. regulators today will begin weighing whether the procedure, used only in monkeys so far, is safe enough to be tested in humans.
The Food and Drug Administration is scheduled today and tomorrow to explore the issue at a meeting, with doctors and researchers scheduled to talk. The FDA will then decide whether to allow scientists at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, who engineered the approach, to move their testing program from macaque monkeys to woman.
I'm divided... I think it'd be great to one day have children born without illnesses, invalidities, etc... But we will then become a society based on just a few moulds. That's scary to me. Also, don't we have more pressing issues to solve? Will we even have a planet to inhabit in 60 years? Will we have enough food? I think it's great to want healthy babies, but it won't save our race in the end. Maybe I'm just a downer...
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
I sent the link to a coworker (a genetics guy) and he said "It's menage a trois in a test tube!".
That was my first thought. My second was who is paying child support for the 'lil bastard.
Well, at first, I wanted to make some dirty jokes, but I thought I better not.
LOL...
I also like the "dad MAY join two moms". I am pretty sure men are pretty important in the whole fertilization of an egg thing. lol
Who knows, maybe they're working on that also... No men needed anymore in procreation, for a better/stronger/more intelligent race!
EDIT: Of course, we'd want to keep the men as sex objects. That goes without saying.
If they were really thinking, they'd stuff that egg in the man then lock his ass up for 9 months. lol
Oh man... Now you got me laughing and thinking about this whole silly thing and I have to go run. How am I going to be able to concentrate with those thoughts on my mind?
Aside from the obvious, which you people have already covered, this brings up other issues. What about the inevitable child custody issues? Unless the 2nd mother was an unknown egg donor, wouldn't there be some legal muckiness?
This is all a little creepy, and I think I'm glad I might not live long enough to see it become routine.
How am I going to be able to concentrate with those thoughts on my mind?
Think about my man Leslie Nielsen instead:
Run to live; live to run
Sounds a lot like trying to create a master race........
Marjorie
Labrat
That technique has long been discussed in the UK.
Here is an article from 2011where the BBC discussed it (IMHO) in a better way.
Research has been going on into it since about 2005.
(Its a local university to where I grew up so I probably am a little more aware of it than most in the UK).
Personally, I understand the drive for a woman with mitochondrial disease to have a baby clear of that risk, but carrying the rest of their (nuclear) DNA. It does tamper with the human germ line in an irreversible way. THAT is something not to be done lightly at all.
Hard though it may for the parents where the mother has mDNA issues, the donor egg should be used it its entirety IMHO.
Little blue,
the donor egg has no rights in normal donor pregnancies, this doesn't create any difficult legal issues that haven't already been covered by legislation.
Marjorie,
No master race. A solution to a very limited and specific problem. Still not one to chase down further at this time.
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Richard, the way you explain it sounds more reasonable. I guess only a scientist can truly understand the dangers and/or benefits of such procedures.