World's first GM babies born
by MICHAEL HANLON, Daily Mail
The world's first genetically modified humans have been created,
it was revealed last night.
The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series
of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate
about ethics.
So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found
to contain genes from three 'parents'.
Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a
result of one experimental programme at the Institute for
Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.
The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra
genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they
were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.
Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm
that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one
man.
The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and
incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in
turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.
Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very
make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast
majority of the world's scientists.
Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to
create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such
as strength or high intelligence.
Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led
by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the
first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in
normal healthy children'.
Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston,
of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday:
'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence
that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that
it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be
allowed in Britain.'
John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the
Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy
for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a
further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro
fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being
regarded as objects on a production line.
'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for
humanity.' Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the
women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in
their egg cells, called mitochondria.
They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some
of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and
injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.
Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from
the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can
now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.
A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
(HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in
Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because
it involved altering the germline.
Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial
scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction
technologies.
He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have
their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in
the lab.
Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using
IVF. Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow
him to clone children --a prospect treated with horror by the
mainstream scientific community.
'It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students,' he
said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three'
individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down
their requests.
