Friday, July 5, 2013

Genetically Modified Humans and Three Parent Children


The British fertility industry and the Department of Health have announced their intention to permit human germ-line gene modification involving genetic material from three human parents. The proposed draft regulations to allow the abnormal creation of human embryos in order to address mitochondrial diseases has been heralded as "life-saving treatment" by Professor Dame Sally Davies, the UK government's chief medical officer.  According to the announcement the new regulations are being introduced to permit researchers to eliminate inherited defective genes but this will undoubtedly lead to the destruction of embryos, the scrambling the identity of children born as a result of the research and will for the first time introduce so called ‘designer’ human beings.
These procedures go far beyond currently existing IVF practices and consequently pose serious health risks to resultant children. They also involve a scrambling of the genetic identity of the child introducing new kinship confusion for future generations and are consequently contrary to the rights of the child.

There is no doubt that once a society accepts the separation of the unitive from the procreative aspect of sexuality it opens the door for other abuses.
The abuses associated with in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry are well documented see my BLOG posts of February 18th 2010, August 3rd 2010, February 14, 2011, November 29th 2011, and April 2nd 2013.

The new techniques - Pronuclear Transfer (PNT), Maternal Spindle Transfer (MST) and Nuclear Genome Transfer (NGT) are presented as a minor extension of IVF. The introduction of genetically modified humans born of biological material from three people, however, represents a new and significant assault on human identity and the commencement a eugenic designer race.

The procedures are incompatible with a raft of previously approve international treaties and conventions including the 2004 EU Treaty, the 1966 United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration of Geneva all of which prohibit various aspects of the processes.

A spokesman for SPUC responding to the HFEA announcement said: "In fact, the vast majority of embryonic children created in the laboratory are killed because they do not meet the 'quality control' requirements dictated by scientists involved in such increasingly macabre experiments. Also, over the past 20 years, proponents of human embryo experimentation have repeatedly claimed that such research offered the promise - and perhaps the only hope - of finding treatments for serious diseases. The public has been repeatedly misled. It is the biotech industry's excuse to create a genetically manipulated baby."