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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectUK House Of Commons OKs Making Babies From DNA Of 3 People
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12717204
12717204, UK House Of Commons OKs Making Babies From DNA Of 3 People
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 01:25 PM
Yeah, It's coming to a clinic near you.


UK House Of Commons OKs Making Babies From DNA Of 3 People
AP | By MARIA CHENG
Posted: 02/03/2015 11:27 am EST Updated: 1 hour ago


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/03/babies-dna-3-people_n_6604490.html


LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted Tuesday to allow scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people — a move that could prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.

The vote in the House of Commons was 382-128 in favor. The bill must next be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law. If so, it would make Britain the first country in the world to allow embryos to be genetically modified.

The controversial techniques — which aim to prevent mothers from passing on inherited diseases — involve altering a human egg or embryo before transferring it into the mother. British law currently forbids any such modification and critics say approving the techniques could lead to the creation of "designer babies."

Defects in the mitochondria can result in diseases including muscular dystrophy, heart, kidney and liver failure and severe muscle weakness.

The technology is completely different from that used to create genetically modified foods, where scientists typically select individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another.

In the House of Commons, health minister Jane Ellison kicked off the debate by urging support for the change.

"This is a bold step to take, but it is a considered and informed step," she said, of the proposed technology to help women with mitochondrial diseases.

Critics, however, say the techniques cross a fundamental scientific boundary, since the changes made to the embryos will be passed on to future generations.

"(This is) about protecting children from the severe health risks of these unnecessary techniques and protecting everyone from the eugenic designer-baby future that will follow from this," said David King, director of the secular watchdog group Human Genetics Alert.

The techniques would likely only be used in about a dozen British women every year who have faulty mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside a cell's nucleus. To fix that, scientists remove the nucleus DNA from the egg of a prospective mother and insert it into a donor egg from which the nucleus DNA has been removed. This can be done either before or after fertilization.

The resulting embryo would end up with the nucleus DNA from its parents but the mitochondrial DNA from the donor. Scientists say the DNA from the donor egg amounts to less than 1 percent of the resulting embryo's genes.

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration held a meeting to discuss the techniques and scientists warned it could take decades to determine if they are safe. Experts say the techniques are likely being used elsewhere, such as in China and Japan, but are mostly unregulated.

Rachel Kean, whose aunt suffered from mitochondrial disease and had several miscarriages and stillbirths, said she hoped British politicians would approve the techniques. Kean, an activist for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said her mother is also a carrier of mitochondrial disease and that she herself would like the option one day of having children who won't be affected.

"Knowing that you could bring a child into this world for a short, painful life of suffering is not something I would want to do," she said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said he was a "strong supporter" of the change. Cameron had a severely disabled son, Ivan, who died at age 6 in 2009, from a rare form of epilepsy.

Lisa Jardine, who chaired a review into the techniques conducted by Britain's fertility regulator, said each case will be under close scrutiny and that doctors will track children born using this technique as well as their future offspring. She acknowledged there was still uncertainty about the safety of the novel techniques.

"Every medical procedure ultimately carries a small risk," she said, pointing out that the first baby created using in-vitro fertilization would never have been born if scientists hadn't risked experimenting with unproven methods.

Yet Kean said she understood the opposition to the new technology.

"It's everybody's prerogative to object, due to their own personal beliefs," she said. "But to me the most ethical option is stopping these devastating diseases from causing suffering in the future."

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717249, This is old news Wasn't this made public in the 80s?
Posted by Staring At Insanity, Tue Feb-03-15 01:37 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WyD94vNqWg
12717290, Well I guess we are all silly for not knowing this was old news.
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 01:48 PM
This place is so above everything.


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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717273, All hail Serpentor
Posted by John Forte, Tue Feb-03-15 01:43 PM
12717292, AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAH! You are a FOOL! LOL
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 01:49 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717528, lol, my 1st thought was the episode of The Super Friends when they
Posted by placee_22, Tue Feb-03-15 03:45 PM
made a super Robin from Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman
12717279, you care about the most irrelevant shit at times. sorry.
Posted by double negative, Tue Feb-03-15 01:45 PM
12717288, Explain how this is irrelevant?
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 01:47 PM
Are you not able to see the future ethical and genetic ramification of this topic?


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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717432, Please, do educate us Superion Morales
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Feb-03-15 02:40 PM
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12717470, Can you tell us why it's irrelevant?
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:03 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717489, You're the one on a soap box, champ.
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Feb-03-15 03:12 PM
You're the one riding the Moral High Horse into battle, not me, so how about you explain YOUR stance instead of this vague "don't you see?!?!" bullshit while you fold your arms and demand answers from others.
12717527, It doesn't work like that.
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:43 PM
DN said I care about irrelevant things. I asked him to qualify that remark. You responded.




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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717587, You should just cut & paste “vague moral stance” and K.I.M
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Feb-03-15 04:19 PM
It’s weird that you’re willing to point out the “ethical ramifications”, but not willing to point out the actual ethical ramifications.
12717390, why come they cant just fix british teeth first?
Posted by murderbear, Tue Feb-03-15 02:22 PM
start small

fix the teeth

then maybe abolish the tottenham hotspurs

THEN you build a new aryan nation from the pristine building blocks of an unholy trinity
12717433, ayo leave the Spurs out of this.
Posted by Ted Gee Seal, Tue Feb-03-15 02:41 PM
>start small
>
>fix the teeth
>
>then maybe abolish the tottenham hotspurs
>
>THEN you build a new aryan nation from the pristine building
>blocks of an unholy trinity
12717448, Here, Ted......
Posted by murderbear, Tue Feb-03-15 02:49 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJf3X31ICfE

Sincerely,

The Almighty Gunners,
Kings of London.
12717515, I can't with the Gunners
Posted by Ted Gee Seal, Tue Feb-03-15 03:35 PM
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJf3X31ICfE
>
>Sincerely,
>
>The Almighty Gunners,
>Kings of London.

Mrs Seal's cousin is a Gunners fan. Every time we talk about our teams, the Gunners paste the Spurs in the next match.

Just let em live man.
12717522, we will see this saturday, Ted
Posted by murderbear, Tue Feb-03-15 03:41 PM
12717435, lol.
Posted by ndibs, Tue Feb-03-15 02:43 PM
>start small
>
>fix the teeth
>
>then maybe abolish the tottenham hotspurs
>
>THEN you build a new aryan nation from the pristine building
>blocks of an unholy trinity
12717451, lol damn
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Feb-03-15 02:51 PM
12717450, lol damn
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Feb-03-15 02:51 PM
12717398, http://i.imgur.com/opTmdGm.png
Posted by southphillyman, Tue Feb-03-15 02:26 PM
http://i.imgur.com/opTmdGm.png
12717417, LOL!
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 02:33 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717452, the real question is
Posted by fontgangsta, Tue Feb-03-15 02:51 PM
why do you care?
12717469, The topic of Ethical Science practices is an are of interest for everyone.
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:02 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717475, correction
Posted by fontgangsta, Tue Feb-03-15 03:07 PM
The topic of Ethical Science practices is an area of interest for those who would like to impose their ethics on others.

to everyone else, its just "science"
12717481, So, you want to create a circular conversation.
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:09 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717494, im not sure what you mean
Posted by fontgangsta, Tue Feb-03-15 03:16 PM
12717506, A close friend of mine works for the nuffield council of bioethics
Posted by tomjohn29, Tue Feb-03-15 03:23 PM
from what i know of mitochondrial dna and how far changing genome has on our traits is substantial
at this time we are are still in the infants stages of finding how changing or resequencing dna will have on our traits
the exploration of this with scientific research should proceed
this is not coming to a clinic near you anytime soon
trials may be able to proceed but the scientific community as a whole is still apprehensive on human trials
12717529, Thank for the the contribution. This is good information.
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:45 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717535, Morals or Ethics have never stopped us before.
Posted by initiationofplato, Tue Feb-03-15 03:48 PM
Don't see why now would be any different. Human beings are curious explorers. We will test anything and everything, to any degree of morality.
12717550, For real. I've seen Jurassic Park.
Posted by fontgangsta, Tue Feb-03-15 03:55 PM
12717556, To infinity and Beyooooond
Posted by Case_One, Tue Feb-03-15 03:58 PM

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
12717590, Custody battles are going to be an all new kind of epic.
Posted by Mongo, Tue Feb-03-15 04:22 PM