Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Baby To Be Born Without the Gene For Breast Cancer

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.

manoftin writes to tell us that next week a baby will be born without the gene for breast cancer, according to the BBC. "But he said that, in this case, not carrying the BRCA1 gene would not guarantee any daughter born to the couple would be unaffected by breast cancer because there are other genetic and environmental causes. Dr Alan Thornhill, scientific director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, said: 'While the technology and approach used in this case is fairly routine, it is the first time in the UK that a family has successfully eliminated a mutant breast cancer gene for their child. It is a victory for both the parents and the HFEA that licensed this treatment.'"

6 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. New how? by againjj · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't understand what the real difference is from other types of embryo screening. Sure, there was a different method of screening here, but otherwise screening like this has been going on for a while. No new ethical implications that I see.

  2. Re:Tough choice by Darundal · · Score: 4, Informative

    All that happened was screening. They didn't screw with nature, they just took a peek to see whether the embryo had the gene or not.

  3. hold the phone by Eil · · Score: 3, Informative

    "licensed this treatment"?

    That is without a doubt one of the scariest things I've read lately.

    1. Re:hold the phone by arkhan_jg · · Score: 3, Informative

      The HFEA is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the UK government regulator of treatments than involve well, embryos.

      They approve treatments that are reasonably safe and ethical; and deny approval for treatments that are unsafe or unethical.

      The US has the FDA to do the exact same thing for other treatments. I honestly don't see how legal regulation to prevent free-for-all medical treatment where the layman has no idea whether a given treatment is safe* or not is a bad thing.

      *For reasonable definitions of safe, there's no such thing as zero risk when dealing with medical treatments.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  4. Re:Intelligent Design! by nbert · · Score: 3, Informative

    IIRC the ratio between women and men affected by breast cancer is 100:1. So it makes a big difference.

    However, those statistics are about breast cancer in general. Maybe someone with a medical background can enlighten us about the specific ratio of BRCA1.

    --
    I don't read replies by ACs.
  5. Re:Not quite so straightforward by quenda · · Score: 4, Informative

    by knocking out BRCA that other, unintended consequences will result...

    They are not knocking it out. They are selecting an embryo which has inherited the good (not known bad) copy of the BRCA gene.