Home » Science & Nature » Molecular Biology/Medicine » BIOETHICS AND BIOBABIES

BIOETHICS AND BIOBABIES

©

In two previous articles I have told you about the manipulation of human embryos. In the first one, I talked about selecting a particular genetic makeup so that the newborn child's blood can be used to save a brother´s or a sister´s life. In the second I discussed the transfer of the cytoplasm of the ovules of healthy women to the ovules of infertile ones so that they could have kids. Both of these procedures were carried out in private clinics.

Even though both types of experiments have good purposes, to save lives and to help infertile couples have babies, they raised valid bioethical concerns in the scientific community.

The bioethical issues were: a.- The point at which life begins, since those eggs that did not have the required genes were discarded,

b.- The fact that the pregnacy could be considered not born out of love but for the practical purpose of using the babies' blood, which could in the future make it seem that the second baby was unwanted,

c.- The fact that in all scientific experimentation involving human beings all the subjects must give their informed consent prior to the realization of the experiments. In those cases this could obviously not be given because there is no way to consult the unborn child,

d.- By choosing the genetic makeup of the babies they open the door for the creation of human-designed races, and

e.- In both cases they crossed a line genetic scientists had sworn not to cross: they altered the human genome.

Since my area of expertise is the human genome, I am going to discuss only item e. In several of my past articles I have told you the conditions for altering the human germline, that is, to use gene therapy to modify the human genome. However, when I wrote those articles, I did not anticipate that it could be altered by selecting embryos that do not carry a particular gene defect.

At this point in time, there are tests for a handful of gene defects, but you can imagine that this number is going to increase with time. But not only the capability to test gene defects will increase since, with gene functions being discovered every day, it is only a question of time before they announce the findings of genes associated with intelligence, or any other aptitude.

Now, I have told you before, (see my article on Green Monkeys and Chronic Pain), that one impediment for modifying the genome of human embryos is that a gene can have more than one function. Thus, if you choose an embryo with some particular set of genes how can you be sure that one function is not missing, particularly if it is not needed until late on life?

The copyright of the article BIOETHICS AND BIOBABIES in Molecular Biology/Medicine is owned by . Permission to republish BIOETHICS AND BIOBABIES in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.