Does anybody know why the "embryo repair" method would be used if the "egg repair" method was also an option? Is the embryo-repair method meant to weed out donor eggs that were not viable (by first ensuring that they can at least be fertilized, by fertilizing them)?
UK to allow babies from three people
11–20 of 166 posts
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#12What are the legal rights of the parent who contributed only her mitochondrial DNA?
It would be absolutely stunning if the law gives them any rights at all.
One can hope that the updated legislation somehow addresses this. That said, it would be absolutely stunning if the previously existing law didn't simply go 'boink!' in the face of a heretofore novel circumstance. At very least, I could see the need for the courts to set a precedent if/when the first case came along.
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#13I wonder how people will feel about two men being genetic parents to one baby (with the help of a surrogate mother) once it becomes technologically possible. In that case, no disease is being avoided, but I don't think it falls under the realm of a "designer" baby either. My guess is that many of us will live to see it happen.
Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic doesn't seem like quite the right metaphor but at a time when the world's population is exploding this doesn't seem like our most pressing problem.
World population is not exploding, and overpopulation is not and will not be a major world problem.
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#14So was this banned before?
Yes (at least, in the UK). The brief here:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/brie...
Mentions the "The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008" which banned implantation of a genetically modified embryo. There is a provision in that act for Parliament to approve regulations that provides exceptions for the treatment of mitochondrial diseases.
More: Here's the section of the act:
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#15To those wondering, this does not involve gene splicing or anything like that. Instead, defective mitochondria are being replaced with mitochondria from a healthy donor. This technique is only valid for diseases involving defective mitochondria. The mitochondrial DNA is responsible for very very little of the genetic material that defines who a person is, essentially limited to how effective the mitochondria are at t…
How do mitochondria replicate their own DNA? Do they somehow have the rest of the cell do it, or do they contain/produce and use all of the necessary enzymes/proteins/base-pairs/etc to do it by themselves?
The relationship between them and their host cell almost seems similar to ant-fungus mutualism.
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#16To those wondering, this does not involve gene splicing or anything like that. Instead, defective mitochondria are being replaced with mitochondria from a healthy donor. This technique is only valid for diseases involving defective mitochondria. The mitochondrial DNA is responsible for very very little of the genetic material that defines who a person is, essentially limited to how effective the mitochondria are at t…
>Those who think this is the start of ever more invasive genetic modification of humans, or so called "designer babies"
Well...this is the start of ever more invasive genetic modification of humans.
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic doesn't seem like quite the right metaphor but at a time when the world's population is exploding this doesn't seem like our most pressing problem.
World population is not exploding, and overpopulation is not and will not be a major world problem.
Are you suggesting there are no limits to growth? No limits to available fresh water supplies? No limits to energy production?
Once you run you of fresh water and have to rely on nuclear power to run the desalination plants to keep people watered, you have three major problems.
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#18So was this banned before?
Yes, it was explicitly banned in 1990, with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. In 2008 the government modified the act to allow mitochondrial transfer under future regulations, which enabled such research to take place on human tissue [1].
[1] Section 4 of http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/9780111125816/pdfs/...
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#19To those wondering, this does not involve gene splicing or anything like that. Instead, defective mitochondria are being replaced with mitochondria from a healthy donor. This technique is only valid for diseases involving defective mitochondria. The mitochondrial DNA is responsible for very very little of the genetic material that defines who a person is, essentially limited to how effective the mitochondria are at t…
How do mitochondria replicate their own DNA? Do they somehow have the rest of the cell do it, or do they contain/produce and use all of the necessary enzymes/proteins/base-pairs/etc to do it by themselves? The relationship between them and their host cell almost seems similar to ant-fungus mutualism.
This is actually a now-standard theory of the origin of mitochondria (that they were originally separate organisms):
Re: UK to allow babies from three people
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
World population is not exploding, and overpopulation is not and will not be a major world problem.
Are you suggesting there are no limits to growth? No limits to available fresh water supplies? No limits to energy production? Once you run you of fresh water and have to rely on nuclear power to run the desalination plants to keep people watered, you have three major problems.
Of course there is a limit. But population is soon going to start falling.
Look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate the chart on the right. We're currently at 2.36 fertility rate and falling rapidly. 2.33 is what is necessary for replacement. The US is at 1.9 and Europe is 1.59.