Three-person IVF 'may prevent inherited disease'

SecularMotion

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:00 PM
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Three-person IVF 'may prevent inherited disease'

Source: BBC

Embryos containing DNA from a man and two women have been created by scientists at Newcastle University.

They say their research, published in the journal Nature, has the potential to help mothers with rare genetic disorders have healthy children.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8619533.stm

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Posteritatis

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:02 PM
Response to Original message

1. Huh; interesting! (nt)

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Romulox

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:03 PM
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2. Wouldn't it make more sense for people with rare genetic disorders not to reproduce?

:shrug:

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no_hypocrisy

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:12 PM
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3. That's the theory underlying eugenics.

We've seen the results of that experiment.

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Hekate

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:19 PM
Response to Reply #3

5. Not exactly the same thing. Couples already voluntarily decide against having kids when they know...

... that they are carriers of Tay-Sachs or Huntington's or other deadly diseases. The key difference is being able to make an informed decision, and not to be coerced.

Hekate

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Psephos

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:24 PM
Response to Reply #3

7. We've also seen the results of genetic manipulations leading to unforeseen problems.

The case of Dolly the sheep is a good example. By age 5, she was suffering a number of systemic disorders, including premature degradation of joints, decreased organ vitality, and metabolic compromise. The problem may have arisen in errors of duplication of mitochondrial DNA (which is separate from chromosomic DNA). The mitochondria convert fuel into energy and power all cell activity.

Bottom line, eugenics is an ugly business, as you rightly observed. :) But DNA manipulation can bring serious problems of its own.

(I'll leave "designer gene" ethics issues for some other discussion.)

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Confusious

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Fri Apr-16-10 04:54 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. The only problem with that statement

Edited on Fri Apr-16-10 05:00 PM by Confusious

Is that "Dolly" was a clone, with no DNA manipulation.

But on the flip side, as much as I love science, any DNA manipulation leaves me feeling a bit queasy, whether it's corn, a mammal, or a human.

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Psephos

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Sun Apr-18-10 12:18 AM
Response to Reply #9

10. It depends on one's definition of "DNA manipulation"

I believe you're referring to manipulation of nucleotide sequences, while I'm referring to manipulation of the DNA apparatus.

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Hekate

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:15 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. You would think so. It might be the compassionate thing to counsel them out of the notion, but...

... the desire to reproduce yourself is enormously powerful in a lot of people. This will be hugely expensive, so not likely to be too common.

The couples (? triples?) will be lab rats in a huge experiment; it's already known, though not much discussed by non-scientists, that using surrogate mothers can result in some transfer of DNA, and this new experiment will deliberately mix the DNA from three parents.

Hekate

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Occulus

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:48 PM
Response to Reply #2

8. That's what my parents decided

Bone cancer history in my mom's family; FAP in my father's family. They decided to adopt me and my sister instead.

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bergie321

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Fri Apr-16-10 02:24 PM
Response to Original message

6. Whole new meaning to the book

"Heather has two mommies"

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