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Three Parents Contribute to Experimental Human Embryo

Posted by Zonk on from the welcome-to-transhuman-space dept.

gihan_ripper writes "It sounds like the storyline from a cheesy film, but a human embryo has been created using the genetic material from one man and two women. A team from Newcastle University, England, developed the technique in the hope that it could be used to prevent diseases caused by faulty mitochondria. Their experiment started with two ingredients: first, a left over (and 'severely abnormal') embryo from an IVF treatment; second, a donor egg from another woman. The donor egg has all but the mitochondrial DNA removed, then a nucleus from the embryo is inserted into the egg. Effectively, this results in a mitochondria transplant. 'While any baby born through this method would have genetic elements from three people, the nuclear DNA that influences appearance and other characteristics would not come from the woman providing the donor egg. However, the team only have permission to carry out the lab experiments and as yet this would not be allowed to be offered as a treatment.'"

5 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Can and Should by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just because they can, should they? Maybe I'm too cynical, but in a world that's already overpopulated it seems counter-productive in the long run to figure out how to make humans the most expensive way possible. I probably need coffee and a Blank Expression.

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    1. Re:Can and Should by Antiocheian · · Score: 1, Interesting
      But I feel that they should not destroy embryos to achieve that goal. It may be perceived as OK according to the original article (``began to develop normally, but were destroyed within six days,,) but the destruction of an embryo was perceived as a murder according to a Pennsylvania judge who upheld fetal homicide law in the case of a woman who was charged with assault of a pregnant woman that resulted in the death of the 15-week-old fetus.

      but people want to have their own children, and ensuring that they're healthy seems like a good thing to me... It would seem good to the ancient Spartans as well, so they were throwing unhealthy ones from a cliff. The poor ancient bastards didn't have the technology and scientific knowledge to kill the embryos themselves and avoid embarrassment.
  2. Like something out of science-fiction by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's funny to see this happening with mankind already, since science fiction has long dreamt up advanced human or alien races with triune families, e.g. the Soft Ones from Asimov's The Gods Themselves , and in Larry Niven's Known Space universe it's one of the social innovations that only comes about in five hundred years or so.

  3. asexual reproduction - sexual reproduction ? by jbeaupre · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since mitochondria are only passed by the mother, effectively asexual reproduction of those genes, I assume there's less genetic mixing to keep it healthy (I've heard dad's does get in on rare occasions). Would combining mitochondrial DNA sources instead of replacing be of any benefit?

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    1. Re:asexual reproduction - sexual reproduction ? by snl2587 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this technique was for cases in which the mitochondrial DNA of the mother was already faulty. Unless combining the DNA eliminates the faultiness, I don't think it will help. Unless you meant using the dad's?