Researchers from Newcastle University have created embryos from three parents, it was revealed this weekend.
The embryos, created by IVF treatment in a test-tube, were formed from one male and two females in order to “lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases”. [Reuters]
The technicality of the process as described by the Newcastle research team “involves in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the subsequent removal of the egg's nucleus. The nucleus is then placed into a donor egg whose DNA has been removed. The resulting foetus inherits nuclear DNA, or genes, from both parents but mitochondrial DNA from a third party.”
The treatment is expected to be available in only three to five years “if all goes well” but whether the world is actually ready to take on such drastic methods of genetic modification is another matter.
The embryos formed from this research were destroyed for legal and ethical reasons but would certainly have made for interesting case studies in themselves. Imagine knowing you had 3 parents. Would that make one think differently about the world, about family, about life? Or would it just mean more Christmas presents under the tree?
The research is certainly one to be considered as extraordinary, but how far will the research go in order to eradicate the mitochondrial diseases that are evident in 1 in 5000 children? What if it actually takes the likes of four parents in order to make this a successful experiment? If that child were born, who would be mummy and daddy? All these questions first need to be answered before even considering releasing the treatment to patients, and three to five years for many seems rather too soon.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics has expressed her own conerns regarding the matter stating:
Likewise, Dr David King of Human Genetics Alert said it was too far a drift towards "GM babies."
Reassuring as it can be to know that scientists are constantly setting new high standards for research, controversy never comes too far after a breakthrough and there is certainly more ethic groups only around the corner to oppose such research plans.
Read more at Reuters.
The embryos, created by IVF treatment in a test-tube, were formed from one male and two females in order to “lead to effective treatments for a range of serious hereditary diseases”. [Reuters]
The technicality of the process as described by the Newcastle research team “involves in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the subsequent removal of the egg's nucleus. The nucleus is then placed into a donor egg whose DNA has been removed. The resulting foetus inherits nuclear DNA, or genes, from both parents but mitochondrial DNA from a third party.”
The treatment is expected to be available in only three to five years “if all goes well” but whether the world is actually ready to take on such drastic methods of genetic modification is another matter.
The embryos formed from this research were destroyed for legal and ethical reasons but would certainly have made for interesting case studies in themselves. Imagine knowing you had 3 parents. Would that make one think differently about the world, about family, about life? Or would it just mean more Christmas presents under the tree?
The research is certainly one to be considered as extraordinary, but how far will the research go in order to eradicate the mitochondrial diseases that are evident in 1 in 5000 children? What if it actually takes the likes of four parents in order to make this a successful experiment? If that child were born, who would be mummy and daddy? All these questions first need to be answered before even considering releasing the treatment to patients, and three to five years for many seems rather too soon.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics has expressed her own conerns regarding the matter stating:
It is risky, dangerous and a step towards designer babies . It
is human beings they are experimenting with. We should not be messing around
with the building blocks of life.
Likewise, Dr David King of Human Genetics Alert said it was too far a drift towards "GM babies."
Reassuring as it can be to know that scientists are constantly setting new high standards for research, controversy never comes too far after a breakthrough and there is certainly more ethic groups only around the corner to oppose such research plans.
Read more at Reuters.
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