{"id":7153,"date":"2004-10-19T11:26:43","date_gmt":"2004-10-19T18:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/10\/19\/hello-muddah-hello-faddah-hello-muddah.html"},"modified":"2004-10-19T11:26:43","modified_gmt":"2004-10-19T18:26:43","slug":"hello_muddah_he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/19\/hello_muddah_he.html","title":{"rendered":"Hello muddah, hello faddah, hello muddah …"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this era of divorce and remarriage and the like, the idea of functionally having multiple parents is not all that new. The idea of biologically <\/em>having multiple parents<\/a>, though, is a bit more novel …<\/p>\n

The technology – which is being developed by a team at Newcastle University – will involve the implanting of the nucleus of an embryo from an affected mother into an egg taken from a donor that has been stripped of its nucleus.<\/p>\n

Human eggs carry small spherical or rod-like bodies called mitochondria, which supply energy for the growing foetus. These have their own genes, inherited separately from the child’s main chromosomal genes. Crucially, some mitochondrial DNA is defective and can pass on one of around 50 degenerative diseases. It is thought more than 1,000 children in Britain suffer from diseases caused by defective mitochondria, some ending up with chronic brain disease.<\/p>\n

Neurologist Professor Doug Turnbull and embryologist Dr Mary Herbert believe that by implanting the nucleus of an embryo of a mother with defective mitochondria into the egg of a woman with healthy mitochondria, the resultant foetus will be free of the destructive genetic diseases.<\/p>\n

Various folk, though, are up in arms over the idea.<\/p>\n

But campaigners say it could lead to significant increases in elderly women having children. They also claim it represents an unacceptable step towards the creation of designer babies. ‘By creating a child with three genetic parents, these scientists are taking the first step towards genetic engineering of human beings. That is not a direction in which we should be going,’ said Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert. <\/p>\n

Patrick Cusworth, of the charity Life, condemned the work, saying it would raise questions as to who would be the real mother. ‘We would also be concerned about the safety of any embryo or child born from this method and worried that the technology could be abused by other scientists for different purposes.’<\/p>\n

Certainly there are concerns to be had here — potential risks to children, social issues, and, yes, the ethical questions raised by coming closer to genetic engineering. But the genie never goes back in the bottle, folks. If it can be done, it probably will be done. Address and debate those issues and concerns, yes, but don’t think that they’re going to long stand in the way of the technology. The question is not whether we will face these issues, but how <\/em>we will face them.<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this era of divorce and remarriage and the like, the idea of functionally having multiple parents is not all that new. The idea of biologically having multiple parents, though,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11668,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/23\/hello_muddah_hello_faddah.html","url_meta":{"origin":7153,"position":0},"title":"Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Jul-07 7:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"So we dropped Kitten off at Girl Scout camp yesterday morning.\u00a0 The \"mini-camp\" she's on -- three days, two nights -- is held at Tomahawk Ranch up in Bailey,a gorgeous...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/IMG00033.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7696,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/17\/shuffle_me_timb.html","url_meta":{"origin":7153,"position":1},"title":"Shuffle me timbers","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Jan-05 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the \"Party Shuffle\" meme (10 random songs via the Party Shuffle control from one's iTunes or other MP3 library system). 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Of course, Jimmy Carter, himself a...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129030,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/01\/the-evolutionary-advantage-of-having-the-elderly-around.html","url_meta":{"origin":7153,"position":3},"title":"The evolutionary advantage of having the elderly around","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Dec-15 12:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting scientific study here finding that humans have an unusual number of recent gene adaptations to protect against development of dementia. That wouldn't be necessary in a \"state of nature,\" but with humans living progressively longer, families where the old maintain their cognitive functions are at a distinct advantage for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9391,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/17\/clones_are_or_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":7153,"position":4},"title":"Clones are (or would be) people, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Jul-06 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"File this under the \"duh\" heading, as far as I'm concerned: human clones would probably\u00a0\"feel individuality\": A cloned human would probably consider themselves to be an individual, a study suggests.Scientists...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4915,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/07\/comic_relief_5.html","url_meta":{"origin":7153,"position":5},"title":"Comic relief","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Dec-03 8:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Is laughter the best medicine? Well, at least it feels pretty swell, according to a new study. The results, published in the journal Neuron, show that, in addition to activating...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}