Three-person baby debate begins in Parliament

[demmiblue]

Source: BBC

MPs have begun debating whether to allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he would vote in favour of the technique which is aimed at preventing deadly genetic diseases.

The UK could become the first country to introduce laws to allow the creation of babies from three people.

The issue has sparked fierce ethical debate and senior Church figures have called for the procedure to be blocked.

However, if there is a "yes" vote in the Commons, then the first three-person baby could be born as soon as next year. It could eventually help about 150 couples a year.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31069173

[ann---]

1. OMG

Franken-babies!

[DetlefK]

2. "It's alive!" vs "It's dead."

From a strictly materialistic point of view, we are just chemical machines anyways. And this method is like patching bad software.


But seriously: What's the difference between this and homo sapiens interbreeding with neanderthals?

[ann---]

3. The difference

as I see it, is that there is a third party involved. That's a recipe for disaster, in my view.

[DetlefK]

5. You mean, in legal and parenting terms?

The third party could be treated like a sperm donor that helps a couple get pregnant. That's not that outlandish.

[ann---]

7. Well

You only need ONE sperm donor in order to get pregnant. Adding genes from a THIRD party is outlandish - to me.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Mitochrondial DNA is normally duplicated from mother to child

and so, unless there are mistakes in the copying process, everyone has the same mtDNA sequences. This is replacing the mitochondrial DNA that has gone wrong, due to errors in copying, with a version that still does the job that is needed. Why would this cause a disaster?

[MohRokTah]

4. What a brilliant technique!

The child will have a nucleic mother and a mitochondrial mother, but one father.

It's really very simple to solve any legal issues. The nucleic mother is considered the biological mother.

There could also be a third mother if a surrogate mother is used to carry the embryo to term.