Fetus with three parents created

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3189718.stm

A controversial IVF technique could see babies being born with three parents, scientists have suggested.
Experts in China say they have created embryos using eggs from two women and sperm from one man.

The embryos were implanted into a 30-year-old Chinese women with fertility problems.

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Scientists at Sun Yat-Sen University, in Guangzhou, tried to overcome this problem by fusing the woman's egg with one from another woman.

Eggs consist of a nucleus which holds most of their DNA and surrounding material called the cytoplasm.

Scientists removed the DNA material from the donor egg leaving just the cytoplasm. They then put the nucleus of the patient's egg into the donor egg, in a process called human nuclear transfer


These fused eggs were then fertilised with the man's sperm. In all, the scientists transferred five of the three-parent embryos into the woman.

She subsequently became pregnant with triplets. One month into the pregnancy, doctors aborted one foetus to give the remaining two a better chance of survival.

However, the remaining two were both delivered prematurely and died at four and five months into the pregnancy respectively.

The scientists said the deaths were not related to the IVF technique they used, but rather due to complications as a result of a multiple pregnancy

<snip>

The technology behind the Chinese experiment was developed in the United States.


more....

or something...

about six months ago on how the Chinese are slowly overtaking US scientists in genetic engineering, reproductive research, and cloning.

The reason is simple enough; the Chinese do not have the cultural or religious reservations that are found in the US over such research and related issues.

This is just one more example where the religious right is hindering our ability to be world leaders in some areas of medical research.

You'll find lots of interesting stories. The USSR shot itself in the foot in a major way there. The parallels are striking.

:evilgrin::bounce:

hit a void when you read that headline. It took me a few milliseconds to recover. Very frightening.

Jay

chimeras (fetuses, and people, resulting from the fusing of separately-fertilized eggs) can have more than one father. I believe that there is at least one such case, revealed by DNA analysis -- I can look it up but don't have the reference easily available.

What's different here: (1) two mothers, not two fathers; (2) done intentionally using IVF and other (cloning) technology.

posthuman reality will move on over you.

Quick show of hands, who thinks they need more parents in their personal equation?!?

I disqualify myself, since I am married, and therefore have no opinions of my own. ;)