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First 'three person baby' born using new method

bbc.co.uk

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Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, no quandary at all created by the possibility that mistakes and misunderstandings might lead to children with severe medical problems. Short, miserable lifetimes of suffering are a high cost for "improving the species", and they are a real possibility if the approach taken is to just try things that seem worth trying.

Similar risks are taken when two native people from different parts of the world have a baby together.

That's not true. Most genetic disorders are caused by receiving one or more defective copies of a gene. In the case of a single defective gene causing the disorder, it doesn't make a difference what gene the other parent has. In the case where multiple defective copies cause the disorder, the further apart two lineages are, the less likely it becomes that they will each have defective copies of the same gene.

There's probably a higher chance of blood type incompatibilities, but that isn't a lifetime genetic disorder for the child, it just needs to be accounted for during the pregnancy.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#32

Notably, this prevents transmission of a disease that is "fatal to any baby conceived", which makes this as uncontroversial a case of a "designer baby" as I can imagine. After this, the ethics get much more complicated.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

It is pretty close to eugenics, whose ethical problems are I think well-acknowledged now. (And it's worth noting that these ethical problems were not acknowledged in the US in the early 20th century, and a very large number of reasonable people were excited about eugenics.)

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#33

Notably, this prevents transmission of a disease that is "fatal to any baby conceived", which makes this as uncontroversial a case of a "designer baby" as I can imagine. After this, the ethics get much more complicated.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

Sometimes here in HN you will hear about how things like name,age, etc are bias for who gets hired, and people being rejected based on those things. So just add "method of conception" to that.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#34

Notably, this prevents transmission of a disease that is "fatal to any baby conceived", which makes this as uncontroversial a case of a "designer baby" as I can imagine. After this, the ethics get much more complicated.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

(Some) people will design the new human for the benefit of themselves (i.e. the designer) rather than the benefit of the new human.

A few ideas that come to mind are having children with ridiculously amped loyalty, so I can condition them during their early years and then put them to work making money and simply use them as my retirement fund. I could also ensure they're suitable organ donors, and make use of their organs as my own fail.

As with every ethical question, that's only a problem if you think new humans shouldn't be explicitly created for the benefit of the creators.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#35

Interesting they had to go to Mexico to perform this procedure.

From another article[0]

>Neither method has been approved in the US, so Zhang went to Mexico instead, where he says “there are no rules”.

[0]https://www.newscientist.com/article/2107219-exclusive-world...

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#36

mtDNA is also very significant in historical migration studies... if anyone has a high level explanation of the global state of knowledge in this area I would love to see it ... trying to author a regionally focused ancient history book and piecing together the disparate pieces of supposed genetic evidence for various things is a task I am wholly unqualified for and would love some assistance with.

This book did a great job, but it might be outdated: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Sex-Suicide-Mitochondria-Meanin...

In another of Nick Lane's books he mentions compatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA as a possible reason for variation in fertility in different species. If that's true I'd expect the 3-parent process to produce fewer pregnancies per fertilized egg than the normal 2-parent method which runs at around 50%.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#37

Notably, this prevents transmission of a disease that is "fatal to any baby conceived", which makes this as uncontroversial a case of a "designer baby" as I can imagine. After this, the ethics get much more complicated.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

See the movie gattaca for a decent exploration of this theme.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#38

Notably, this prevents transmission of a disease that is "fatal to any baby conceived", which makes this as uncontroversial a case of a "designer baby" as I can imagine. After this, the ethics get much more complicated.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

[deleted]

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It occurs to me: What are the ethical problems with designer babies?

(Some) people will design the new human for the benefit of themselves (i.e. the designer) rather than the benefit of the new human. A few ideas that come to mind are having children with ridiculously amped loyalty, so I can condition them during their early years and then put them to work making money and simply use them as my retirement fund. I could also ensure they're suitable organ donors, and make use of their o…

There's already a demographic that'd do that sort of thing - see reddit.com/r/raisedbynarcissists for horrifying examples. Your concern is dead on, and we'd need some serious progress on youth rights for me to be more comfortable with unrestricted designer babies.

Re: First 'three person baby' born using new method

#40
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard Eugenics defined in this way. I've only heard it used to mean selective planned breeding (as we do with livestock), but not intentional selective improvement of the parents' DNA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_eugenics Totally worth peeking into, it's interesting what many countries have considered, have attempted, and are continuing to ruminate on.

The common thread in all the examples there is that choice are made for parents for the sake of society or "the race." I'm not familiar with Alien Nations so I can't speak to the OP but clearly not all genetic manipulation or screening is actually eugenics.
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