Scary stuff - NEWS: World's first genetically modified humans born

[Shlomo]

World's first GM babies born
by MICHAEL HANLON
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-43767/Worlds-GM-babies-born.html

The world's first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.

The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.

So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'.

Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.

The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.

Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one man.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.

Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.

Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.

Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.

'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.' Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.

They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.

Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.

Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies.

He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab.

Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF. Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children --a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community.

'It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students,' he said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three' individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.

[syyuge]

At one end it is horrible but at the other end it is scientific. At first stage, the scientific inventions are misused enmasse but at the second stage the maturity generally starts arriving.   

[Rubystars]

This is only the "Batch" that worked. Imagine the failures leading up to this so-called breakthrough. This is a lot darker than people realize I would bet.

Coincidence?
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/03/12543099-california-bill-would-allow-children-to-have-more-than-two-parents?lite

[Aces High]

Throw in  Albert Einstein genes  for good measure, for the third parent,  DNA.   

[Meerkat]

this doesnt sound that bad. from what i understand, they just took healthy chromosomes from 3 different adults and incorporated 46 of them into one egg. there can be scarier.

[angryChineseKahanist]

Stalin would have been proud.
He wanted to make ape-men.
Soldiers who would eat garbage, live in the cold and not complain.

[muman613]

This is bad news... Arrogance will lead man to destruction through the folly of playing G-d.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

This is only the "Batch" that worked. Imagine the failures leading up to this so-called breakthrough. This is a lot darker than people realize I would bet.

Coincidence?
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/03/12543099-california-bill-would-allow-children-to-have-more-than-two-parents?lite

There are many "batches"  (if by batches you mean embryos) in one IVF attempt.  How is this different?

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

If G-d wanted three way DNA, he would of made it that way! This is not right!!

[Confederate Kahanist]

I personally think we ought to just modify DNA to prevent Downs Syndrome. 

[Meerkat]

If G-d wanted three way DNA, he would of made it that way! This is not right!!

theres a lot of stuff we do artificially that God didnt set up outright. while i agree that there are some things humanhs should never mess with, just its absence in nature is not a determining factor.

[cjd]

Stalin would have been proud.
He wanted to make ape-men.
Soldiers who would eat garbage, live in the cold and not complain.

Who knows that's just what may develop here in 20 years with the 3 parent wonders.... G-d willing they will be like a mule and not have the ability to reproduce... The social implications of creatures like this are even worse than the medical.

[Rubystars]

There are many "batches"  (if by batches you mean embryos) in one IVF attempt.  How is this different?

What I'm saying is I wonder how many groups of babies might've been developing with deformities before they had this group of healthy children, and were aborted or discarded.

[Rubystars]

The Bible says to honor your mother and your father. The Bible lays out Adam and Eve as the correct pattern for parents, not Adam and Eve and Jane. This technique is wrong in my opinion.

[edu]

What if someone would clone a baby with the DNA of super-terrorist, Yasir Arafat, what would be the status of that baby?

[Rubystars]

What if someone would clone a baby with the DNA of super-terrorist, Yasir Arafat, what would be the status of that baby?

They would be his genetic twin but would have to make moral decisions of their own.

[Khan Krum]

Of course the liberals will all be talking about how "cool" this is and what an amazing scientific breakthrough has been made… anyone with morals in their minds will is thought of by backwards and barbaric even. This is another sad day of humanity.

[angryChineseKahanist]

these aren't liberals, they're communists.

[Khan Krum]

I personally think we ought to just modify DNA to prevent Downs Syndrome.

…If we could only get rid of problems like Down's, maybe even other mental/phyisical defects, I'm okay with that. But being able to "customize" one's child (in this fashion-obsessed society where style and look is everything) will lead to disaster, and it is morally and ethically wrong.

[Rubystars]

…If we could only get rid of problems like Down's, maybe even other mental/phyisical defects, I'm okay with that. But being able to "customize" one's child (in this fashion-obsessed society where style and look is everything) will lead to disaster, and it is morally and ethically wrong.

Down's is most often a random mutation, like so many other deformities (progeria, etc.). The only way to prevent it is to do pre-implantation diagnosis, which means discarding living embryos that have it. Most conservatives are going to have a problem with that.

This is one of the reasons that eugenics doesn't make any sense. You could have two people theoretically who are not carriers of any rare genetic diseases, and yet they could have a child with Down's, Progeria, etc. or any other disease that's a random mutation.

[Meerkat]

Downs is chromosomal, not genetic. you can have not 1 person in your family have downs for centuries and still have a kid with it, god forbid. you just need 3 chrosome 21s

the reason im not afraid of this particular breakthrough is that these kids will very much live normal lives, and if the chromosomes are selected randomly, its not customization.

[Rubystars]

Downs is chromosomal, not genetic. you can have not 1 person in your family have downs for centuries and still have a kid with it, G-d forbid. you just need 3 chrosome 21s

the reason im not afraid of this particular breakthrough is that these kids will very much live normal lives, and if the chromosomes are selected randomly, its not customization.

Chromosomes are genetic.

What if someone had two mothers, one Jewish and one Gentile? How would it be determined if the person is Jewish or not?  See these things will cause all kinds of problems. I don't think it's a good idea at all.

[Meerkat]

...

What if someone had two mothers, one Jewish and one Gentile? How would it be determined if the person is Jewish or not?  See these things will cause all kinds of problems. I don't think it's a good idea at all.

probably which ever mother carried the child. (i think) thats the reason jews are matrilineal anyway

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

What if someone would clone a baby with the DNA of super-terrorist, Yasir Arafat, what would be the status of that baby?

Its likely to grow up to have murderous, homosexual, and pedophillic tendencies, but being a dna match does not make it the same person!   Otherwise identical twins would be the same person, which they aren't.  It would be evil to try to replicate evil people but you can't just say someone's a criminal because of their genes or dna code when they haven't done anything.  It makes zero scientific sense.

[Meerkat]

if you take a genetic clone of arafat (ysv), and place said clone in a decent environment, raised by good decent people, said clone would most likely have a very normal life