Slashdot Mirror


UK Scientists Create a Three-Parent Embryo

Troll-Under-D'Bridge writes "The BBC reports that British scientists have manufactured embryos containing genetic material from a man and two women. Under the procedure developed by scientists from Newcastle University, the nuclei from a father's sperm and a mother's egg are transferred into a second woman's egg 'from which the nucleus had been removed, but which retained its mitochondria.' The research, which may 'help mothers with rare genetic disorders have healthy children,' used embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization treatment."

16 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Wow . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 4, Funny

    So Heather REALLY HAS two mommies!

    1. Re:Wow . . . by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nah - just double the headaches, and a 'honeydo' list that's twice as long.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:Wow . . . by need4mospd · · Score: 2, Funny

      There are some positive side effects, such as the dishes are washed in half the time and meal time means twice the number of sandwiches made. Hopefully with extra bacon. However, one should have access to alternate housing should the two menstrual cycles overlap.

  2. They've Finally Done It. by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientists have found a way to ruin the meaning of "threesome". Is this the true cost of progress?

    1. Re:They've Finally Done It. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Just wait until they ruin the G-Spot

      http://xkcd.com/685/

    2. Re:They've Finally Done It. by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well of course. A few years ago we were all at work. Now you send a few resumes each morning and menage the rest of the day.

  3. Re:More nonsense use to justify immoral action by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have severe moral issues with people who think that morality is anything more than an arbitrary human construct largely defined by unconscious mental process shaped by evolution, thus making axiology a faux endeavor, you insensitive clod!

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  4. Ménage à trois by GNUALMAFUERTE · · Score: 2, Funny

    A very scientific, high tech, in vitro ménage à trois.

    --
    WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
    1. Re:Ménage à trois by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Funny

      I prefer the old fashioned way of combining the genetic material of a man and two women personally.

  5. Re:More nonsense use to justify immoral action by joocemann · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did you mean to say "I don't like this." ?

  6. Please don't joke. I think I have three parents. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    My mother is Oriental, since she is from Hong Kong. My father is a white European Jew from Latvia. I'm their biological child, however I'm black like an African. My chums used to joke that I was Angolan.

    My parents and the doctors were very surprised when I came out of the womb and I looked like neither of my parents. My mother swears that she has never had intimate relations with a black man.

    I'm religious, so I've always considered it a gift directly from God. I think of Him as my Second Father.

  7. So how would this affect ability to use the force? by ciaohound · · Score: 1, Funny

    MtDNA from egg donor

    Anakin Skywalker's mother, for instance.

    Maternal chromosomal DNA is from the nuclear DNA donor

    non-high midichlorin femaile character, like... not Princess Leia, she clearly has midichlorins. Were there any other females in those movies?

    Paternal chromosomal DNA is from the sperm

    from Han Solo. Or, god forbid, Jar Jar Binks. So, basically, because of the importance of this midichlorinal DNA, Jar Jar could be given Jedi powers? That is messed up.

    --
    Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
  8. Re:Three parents? Not really. by noidentity · · Score: 2, Funny

    Specifically metabolism can you imagine two identical twins where one was fat and the other skinny?

    Sure, if I replace the word "identical" with "very different".

  9. Re:Really? by Penguinisto · · Score: 2, Funny

    Kids with spam for genetic material?

    I'm sure Hormel has that patented. :)

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  10. Re:You FAIL iT.. by russotto · · Score: 2, Funny

    or maybe require the poster to prove the collatz conjecture, and define a turing machine that can verify the proof?

    Last time they tried that I was a wiseguy and submitted a turing machine which would halt iff the collatz conjecture was true. Next thing you know, Slashdot went down trying to verify whether the thing halted. I don't think my post ever made it either.

  11. The real winners ... by Redwing · · Score: 2, Funny

    The real winners are the writers of Law & Order who have a great 3-way custody episode to create.

    --
    Raisinettes are my raison d'etre