By Simon Caldwell
MANCHESTER, England (CNS) — A Catholic bioethics institute criticized plans by the British government to create “genetically modified children” free of hereditary disease and said the treatment could affect the child’s descendants in unknown ways.
The Department of Health announced June 28 that, later this year, it will publish draft regulations on two mitochondrial replacement techniques.
The techniques can result in the creation of a single baby by several genetic parents, and one of the processes has been nicknamed “three-parent IVF” by the British media. No country in the world so far permits the procedure, meaning that Britain would be the first to create the first babies using the technique, probably by 2015.
The government has said there is general support for the techniques among the public, but the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, an Oxford-based institute serving the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland, said it was disturbed by the proposals.
A statement posted on the center’s website said that the technique would genetically alter not only the baby but also the child’s descendants. Government proponents say descendants would also be free of the genetic disease because of the altered DNA.
article continues here
No comments:
Post a Comment