Three parents

[Gob]

The UK looks set to become the first country to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people, after the government backed the IVF technique.

It will produce draft regulations later this year and the procedure could be offered within two years.

Experts say three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases that are passed on from mother to child.

Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a "slippery slope".

They also argue that affected couples could adopt or use egg donors instead.

Mitochondria are the tiny, biological "power stations" that give the body energy. They are passed from a mother, through the egg, to her child.

Defective mitochondria affect one in every 6,500 babies. This can leave them starved of energy, resulting in muscle weakness, blindness, heart failure and death in the most extreme cases.

Research suggests that using mitochondria from a donor egg can prevent the diseases.

It is envisaged that up to 10 couples a year would benefit from the treatment.

However, it would result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount from a third donor as the mitochondria themselves have their own DNA.

Earlier this year, a public consultation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) concluded there was "general support" for the idea and that there was no evidence that the advanced form of IVF was unsafe.

The chief medical officer for England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, said: "Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these disease being passed on, bringing hope to many families seeking to prevent their future children inheriting them.

"It's only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can."

She said there were "clearly some sensitive issues here" but said she was "personally very comfortable" with altering mitochondria.

Scientists have devised two techniques that allow them to take the genetic information from the mother and place it into the egg of a donor with healthy mitochondria.

The result is a baby with genetic information from three people.

They would have more than 20,000 genes from their parents and 37 mitochondrial genes from a donor.

It is a change that would have ramifications through the generations as scientists would be altering human genetic inheritance.

Objections to the procedure have been raised ever since it was first mooted.

Dr David King, the director of Human Genetics Alert, said: "These techniques are unnecessary and unsafe and were in fact rejected by the majority of consultation responses.

"It is a disaster that the decision to cross the line that will eventually lead to a eugenic designer baby market should be taken on the basis of an utterly biased and inadequate consultation."

One of the main concerns raised in the HFEA's public consultation was of a "slippery slope" which could lead to other forms of genetic modification.

Draft regulations will be produced this year with a final version expected to be debated and voted on in Parliament during 2014.

Newcastle University is pioneering one of the techniques that could be used for three-person IVF.

Prof Doug Turnbull, the director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research at the university, said he was "delighted".

He said: "This is excellent news for families with mitochondrial disease.

"This will give women who carry these diseased genes more reproductive choice and the opportunity to have children free of mitochondrial disease. I am very grateful to all those who have supported this work."

The fine details of the regulations are still uncertain, yet it is expected to be for only the most severe cases.

It is also likely that children would have no right to know who the egg donor was and that any children resulting from the procedure would be monitored closely for the rest of their lives.

Sir John Tooke, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: "Introducing regulations now will ensure that there is no avoidable delay in these treatments reaching affected families once there is sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy.

"It is also a positive step towards ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of cutting-edge research in this area."

I await dgs's head exploding with this one...

[Big RR]

I read about this technique's development a while back, and I applaud the UK for taking the lead on the procedure. Certainly there are many ethical questions, but the procedure does make it easier for women with mitochondrial disease to produce offspring without the disease. Certainly one doesn't want to see genetic manipulation for eugenic purposes, but when one can avoid a recognized serious disease by this sort of procedure, it makes sense to allow the women who want to reproduce without passing on the disease the option of doing so.

[Joe Guy]

It's just a matter of time before things like this become common practice in the medical field. It's a logical progression.

The progress will be slowed down and not happen as soon as it should because there will be plenty of people who will believe we should never do anything so "unnatural" and they probably think we'll create monsters during the process.

It's the republicans' fault.

[dales]

I'm hoping that I'll be long dead before we have children designed by a "commitee".

[rubato]

The numbers effected are very very small so the effects are not likely to be important biologically. The information provided is too limited to have a sense of the total impact.



yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

I'm hoping that I'll be long dead before we have children designed by a "commitee".

Right, we should produce children the old-fashioned way; drunk redneck teenagers fucking and shotgun weddings!


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Right, we should produce children the old-fashioned way; drunk redneck teenagers fucking and shotgun weddings!
yrs,
rubato

Ah, the voice of experience. I'm sure the moonshine and the shotgun involved in your parents wedding was one of the best in the world .

[rubato]

Right, we should produce children the old-fashioned way; drunk redneck teenagers fucking and shotgun weddings!
yrs,
rubato

Ah, the voice of experience. I'm sure the moonshine and the shotgun involved in your parents wedding was one of the best in the world .

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.


And your father was?



yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.

Yep, and they got pissed and screwed and ended up with a shotgun wedding, and produced an unwanted little snit.

And your father was?

The best in the world.

[dales]

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.


And your father was?



yrs,
rubato

A WW2 vet who fought against the Axis powers so little pukes like yourself could relax in idle comfort (all the while sneering at those you believe inhabit a lower caste then yoourself) yet not contributing anything of value to society at large.

Pathetic and sickning!

[rubato]

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.

Yep, and they got pissed and screwed and ended up with a shotgun wedding, and produced an unwanted little snit.

I am the second of four children. The fourth was, by family rumor, unplanned but the first three were all intended.

And your father was?

The best in the world.

A sperm donor. In fact.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.


And your father was?



yrs,
rubato

A WW2 vet who fought against the Axis powers so little pukes like yourself could relax in idle comfort (all the while sneering at those you believe inhabit a lower caste then yoourself) yet not contributing anything of value to society at large.

Pathetic and sickning!

Look, if you're going to hurt my feelings you're going to have to spell "sickening" correctly and charge me with something plausibly discreditable that I might have done. This kind of tripe just makes you look like a self-indulgent blubbering drunk. Or ex-drunk (being optimistic).

I sneer at you (and some others) because you are mean witless little assholes who do not make even a slight attempt to remain mentally engaged and civil. The pattern is repeated endlessly that I post something neutral and you morons drive the discussion off into assholery.

If you want me to care what you think you'll just have to start acting like you can think rather than the reflexive "hate rubato" crap.

It is not that I am above you it is that most of the human race is above you.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Yeah, you've really tied one on tonite, you pathertic druken slob!

The little woman away, again?

[rubato]

Intelligent debate is beyond you, once again.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Look, if you're going to hurt my feelings you're going to have to spell "sickening" correctly and charge me with something plausibly discreditable that I might have done. This kind of tripe just makes you look like a self-indulgent blubbering drunk. Or ex-drunk (being optimistic).


yrs,
rubato

Intelligent debate is beyond you, once again.

yrs,
rubato

Pot, Kettle, Black.

[rubato]

Er, you actually can't read can you?


yrs,
rubato

[dales]

[oldr_n_wsr]

My mother was a working RN with a bachelors degree and my father was in the last year of medical school when they got married. Fairly typical match-up for that time.

I'm 55yo and I am guessing you are a little older than I am (being concerned about retirement, 401K etc from your posts around the board) and I would say that having two parents with bachelor degrees (and one even a higher degree) were not very common for that time (1960's-70's). Having even one parent with a bachelors degreee was not common in the 1960's-70's. Maybe in a hospital setting/workplace, but in the general public, you would be hard pressed to find dual degrees among parents. Even in the upper class near where I grew up (I grew up in Mineola in the section that went to East Williston school district), the residents of Old Westbury, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville areas that were my peers in high school, most families were single degree parents.

[Long Run]

Re the original post, it does seem to be more than a little like a Brave New World. If so, I guess I will have to be ready for the many donor requests heading my way.

[dgs49]

My family already had four kids and were living in subsidized housing, so a neighbor had me. They tell me I look just like the postman.