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."
