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Thread: First baby born with DNA from 3 parents

  1. #1

    First baby born with DNA from 3 parents

    -In what experts are calling a "revolutionary" medical event, the first baby with DNA from three parents has been born.

    The little boy, now nearly six months old, was conceived using a controversial technique meant to help people who carry genes for fatal rare diseases. The procedure received widespread media attention when lawmakers in the U.K. became the first to approve its use last year. It is not approved in the U.S.

    As first reported in New Scientist, the baby was born on April 6, 2016 and doctors say he appears healthy. His parents were treated by U.S. fertility specialists in Mexico, where there are no laws prohibiting such methods. His mother carries a genetic mutation for Leigh syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that usually becomes apparent in the first year of life and is generally fatal.

    She had suffered four miscarriages and had two children who died from Leigh syndrome, one at age six and one at eight months. It's a devastating disease for parents and children. Symptoms of Leigh disease usually progress rapidly and lead to generalized weakness, a lack of muscle tone and a buildup of lactic acid in the body, which can cause respiratory and kidney problems. Children rarely live more than six or seven years.

    While the mother herself is healthy, a gene for the disease resides in her DNA, in the mitochondria that powers cells. In her case, about 25 percent of her mitochondria reportedly carry the disease-causing mutation.

    The couple sought help from Dr. John Zhang, a reproductive endocrinologist at New Hope Fertility Center in New York City.

    "This mitochondrial disease is usually a very devastating situation for the babies and the family," Zhang told CBS News.

    He opted to try the three-parent IVF technique to ensure that the disease mutation would not be passed along to the baby.

    "This is the very first time at least in human reproduction that the offspring are produced with three parties – one sperm and different parts of two eggs," Zhang said. "So this is very revolutionary..."

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/first-3-...-rare-disease/

  2. #2
    ...The technique used by Dr John Zhang, of the New Hope Fertility Clinic in New York, and his team involved taking the nucleus from one of the mother's eggs – containing her DNA – and implanting it into a donor egg that had its nucleus removed but retained the donor’s healthy mitochondrial DNA.

    Unlike ordinary DNA, which has the genetic information that helps make us who we are, mitochondrial DNA provides power for the cell and has been compared to a battery.

    Many scientists in the field insist the term “three-parent baby” is inaccurate for this reason as the significant DNA is still from two people.

    Dr Zhang told the New Scientist that, as the technique has not been approved in the US, the team went to Mexico where “there are no rules”.

    “To save lives is the ethical thing to do,” he added....

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-a7333191.html

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    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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  6. #5

    3-Parent Baby Shows ‘No Limits’ Science Hubris
    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...science-hubris

    Fertility doctors have brought a baby to birth from an embryo created artificially with the biological substances of two women and one man. That could be illegal in many places, so the American doctors went to Mexico to do the procedure.

    From the Science story: Zhang reportedly used an approach called spindle nuclear transfer to create five human embryos. The method involves removing the nucleus—the bulk of a cell’s DNA—from one of the mother’s egg cells, and inserting that nucleus into a donor egg cell stripped of its own nucleus.

    The result is an egg with mitochondrial DNA from a healthy donor and nuclear DNA from the mother.

    Five donors eggs prepared this way were then fertilized with the husband’s sperm—but only one of the resulting embryos had a normal number of chromosomes. That embryo was transferred into the mother-to-be.

    Realize, this child was manufactured using broken eggs and a sperm,
    resulting mostly in nonviable embryos.

    More importantly, what are the potential long-term consequences to this child? We don’t know. Indeed, this child will have to be followed for potential health problems going forward. Even if there is no untoward consequence to the baby–which all should hope–this was unethical human experimentation. The doctors fled to Mexico to flee regulatory oversight.

    Yet, “The Scientists” blame the regulators...

    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...science-hubris
    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by GodismyJudge View Post
    “To save lives is the ethical thing to do,” he added....
    You can only say that if you deny that an unborn child is a real child. If you don't you have to admit that the process intentionally included the death of many to (hopefully) create one.

  8. #7



    http://www.lifenews.com/2016/09/28/s...ent-technique/

    There are about 50 known mitochondrial diseases (MCDs), which are passed on in genes coded by mitochondrial (as opposed to nuclear) DNA. They range hugely in severity, but for most there is presently no cure and little other than supportive treatment. The goal behind creating “designer babies” with three parents is to eliminate such diseases.

    But there are good reasons for pro-life people to be concerned about the process and the eugenics-based reasons behind it....



    ...Dr. Peter Saunders, a pro-life physician in England, has commented on the ethical problems with three-parent embryos:

    This is not about finding a cure. It is about preventing people with MCD being born. We need first to be clear that these new technologies, even if they are eventually shown to work, will do nothing for the thousands of people already suffering from mitochondrial disease or for those who will be born with it in the future...



    ...Is it safe? This is far from established. Each technique involves experimental reproductive cloning techniques and germline genetic engineering, both highly controversial and potentially very dangerous. Cloning by nuclear transfer has so far proved ineffective in humans and unsafe in other mammals with a large number of cloned individuals spontaneously aborting and many others suffering from physical abnormalities or limited lifespans.

    Also, any changes, or unpredicted genetic problems (mutations) will be passed to future generations. In general, the more manipulation needed, the higher the severity and frequency of problems in resulting embryos and fetuses.


    Is it ethical? No, there are huge ethical issues. A large number of human eggs will be needed for the research, involving ‘harvesting’ that is both risky and invasive for women donors. How many debt-laden students or desperate infertile women will be exploited and incentivised by being offered money or free IVF treatment in return for their eggs? How many thousands of human embryos will be destroyed? If it ever works, what issues of identity confusion will arise in children with effectively three biological parents? What does preventing those with mitochondrial disease being born say about how we value people already living with the condition? Where will this selection end? Some mitochondrial diseases are much less serious than others. Once we have judged some affected babies not worthy of being conceived, where do we draw the line, and who should draw it?...
    This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (futility) of their mind, having the understanding darkened...
    (Ephesians 4:17-18)

    Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...
    (Psalm 1)

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    Super Moderator Quest's Avatar
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    Another effort of mankind to 'perfect' itself without God...

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