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from the Kwisatz-Haderach-breeding-program dept.
GungnirSniper writes:
The US Food and Drug Administration is holding hearings to help determine if they should allow oocyte modification of mitochondrial DNA, which could prevent hereditary diseases that cause issues, such as such as seizures and blindness, from being passed on by mothers. In layman's terms, this "three-parent IVF" would allow the mitochondrial DNA of an unaffected woman to replace that of the mother while keeping the main DNA, so the child would still look like the mother and father.
From Scientific American: "Once the mtDNA has been swapped out, the egg could be fertilized in the lab by the father's sperm and the embryo would be implanted back into mom where pregnancy would proceed. The resulting child would be the genetic offspring of the intended mother but would carry healthy mitochondrial genes from the donor."
The New York Times has a shorter version of the story, as well as an opinion column urging ethical and moral consideration of this procedure.
Is this an ethical way to prevent future harm, or the start of a slippery slope to designer babies? Is the creation of designer babies immoral?
(Score: 1) by nking on Friday February 28 2014, @04:24PM
As is well known, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) interacts extensively with the nuclear DNA (nDNA). There is obviously considerable variation across species in regards to how these 2 types of DNA interact due to their millenia of differing evolution. I have also read about considerable variation within a given species as well, such that 2 organisms of the same species can have slight differences in the ways their mtDNA and nDNA interact (ie a given mother's 2 DNA's are more like a single unit than simply 2 separate parts working together towards a common goal). Is there any concern about possible incompatibilities between the donors mtDNA and the original mothers nDNA? Would we simply be inviting new disorders to replace the ones being fixed?