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Posted on 10/14/2003 4:14:18 PM PDT by Kaslin
Scientists have created the first pregnancy that would have produced babies with three genetic parents.
But after triplets formed in a woman's womb, one foetus was aborted and two later miscarried. Now work on the process, called human nuclear transfer, has been called off after the authorities realised how close scientists in China were to achieving the birth of a three-parent child.
Experts at the Sun Yat-Sen university of medical science in Guangzhou treated a 34-year-old woman who had undergone two IVF cycles, which had failed because of problems with her eggs.
A donor egg was taken and all genetic material removed before the nucleus of the woman's egg was put into the empty one. The researchers succeeded in transferring five of the three-parent embryos into the woman and she became pregnant with triplets. A month into the pregnancy, doctors aborted one foetus to give the remaining two a better chance. But at four and then five months the remaining two were delivered prematurely because of problems and died.
The researchers claim the deaths were related not to the nuclear transfer process but to poor care of the woman during her pregnancy.
The practice had already been outlawed in Britain, amid fears that it could lead to human cloning, in America and in most other countries. China has also implemented a ban, just before its scientists were due to give details of the pregnancy at the annual conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, being held this week in Texas.
Scientists working in the field of reproduction say human nuclear transfer could be a breakthrough in treating women with poor-quality eggs, which often result in miscarriages and failed pregnancies. The process involves taking the nucleus - which contains all genetic material - out of an unhealthy egg and inserting it into the egg structure of a donor from which all genetic material has been wiped.
The resulting embryo contains all the genetic make-up of the infertile woman but also mitochondrial DNA from the donor egg. Mitochondrial DNA is in effect the powerhouse of all cells and is common to everyone, but it contains tiny and subtle differences in each individual. Therefore, human nuclear transfer creates an embryo with the genetic make-up of two mothers and a father.
Opponents say scientists are "playing God'' and any child born through the process could suffer severe psychological and physical damage.
American scientists were researching nuclear transfer and had developed the process in mice when in 1998 the US government banned all such studies amid ethical concerns. They then donated their work to researchers in China. In their paper, to be presented to the conference tomorrow, the Chinese conclude: "Viable human pregnancies ... can be achieved through nuclear transfer."
Dr James Grifo, a New York university researcher involved in the original work, criticised the ban. He said: "We would never have made the advances in treating infertility that we have if these bans had been imposed 10 years ago.''
But Alison Cook, of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility treatment and research in Britain, said: "You are mixing three people's DNA. The law was written to protect the welfare of the embryo and the child."
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Yo, man!
I hate it when that happens.
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8pm/5pm - Chuck Muth Interviews Lori Waters from the Eagle Forum!
10pm/7pm - Tom Adkins is ON FIRE! If you have never listened to Tom, don't miss his show tonight and watch Tom slice and dice liberals! Tom has been called a cross between Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage and his shows are always intertaining and informative!
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