Parliament says yes to three-person babies

[Duque de Bragança]

Though I liked this from one political reporter:
Paul Waugh @paulwaugh  ·  12h 12 hours ago
RiposteOfTheDay. Evangelical Tory MP in No lobby: "I'm voting for Jesus." 2nd Tory MP in Aye lobby: "But didn't He have three parents?"

Good one indeed.

[Razgovory]

I'm uneasy about this.

Also I think a 90 minute debate about something as ethically difficult as this is a bit of a disgrace.

Sounds like something a Green would say.

[Tamas]

I am happy to hear common sense prevailed for a change.

[The Larch]

I'm uneasy about this.

Also I think a 90 minute debate about something as ethically difficult as this is a bit of a disgrace.

How can it be ethically difficult? Are you not ok with egg donors for fertility treatments? This is simply an advancement on that, for medical purposes.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm uneasy about this.

Also I think a 90 minute debate about something as ethically difficult as this is a bit of a disgrace.

How can it be ethically difficult? Are you not ok with egg donors for fertility treatments? This is simply an advancement on that, for medical purposes.

If the issue had been a goddamned tomato, cities would have burned. 

[The Larch]

I'm uneasy about this.

Also I think a 90 minute debate about something as ethically difficult as this is a bit of a disgrace.

How can it be ethically difficult? Are you not ok with egg donors for fertility treatments? This is simply an advancement on that, for medical purposes.

If the issue had been a goddamned tomato, cities would have burned.

This is not even remotely like GMOs. No DNA is actually altered with this procedure.

[CountDeMoney]

You're only introducing a third party's from the host.

[The Larch]

It sounds worse than what it really is.

[CountDeMoney]

This isn't surrogate parenting, where somebody's carrying around someone else's future snot-nosed little shit;  this introduces genetic alterations at the mitochondrial level.  The issue at hand may be addressing a specific procedure, but it's really the future of prenatal genetic modification Parliament just gave the green light for.

That being said, it's going to do wonders for the UK's genetics industry.

[Josephus]

So in the future everyone will be bright and beautiful. Why's that a problem?

[CountDeMoney]

Because that would suck.

[The Larch]

This isn't surrogate parenting, where somebody's carrying around someone else's future snot-nosed little shit;  this introduces genetic alterations at the mitochondrial level.  The issue at hand may be addressing a specific procedure, but it's really the future of prenatal genetic modification Parliament just gave the green light for.

That being said, it's going to do wonders for the UK's genetics industry.

Without those interventions at the mitochondrial level these hypothetical babies wouldn't be able to be born and/or live healthy lives. There's a host of genetic diseases that can be prevented this way, this is not genetic engineering for the purpose of making everyone blonde and blue eyed.

[CountDeMoney]

Without those interventions at the mitochondrial level these hypothetical babies wouldn't be able to be born and/or live healthy lives. There's a host of genetic diseases that can be prevented this way, this is not genetic engineering for the purpose of making everyone blonde and blue eyed.

Not now in 2015, but 2075 may be a different story.  That's why genetic patenting is going on now.

Some mitochondrial diseases will be mitigated, not all of them.  But it's all genies and bottles, anyway.  It happened with the atom, it will happen with DNA. 

[grumbler]

This isn't surrogate parenting, where somebody's carrying around someone else's future snot-nosed little shit;  this introduces genetic alterations at the mitochondrial level.  The issue at hand may be addressing a specific procedure, but it's really the future of prenatal genetic modification Parliament just gave the green light for.

What fears do you have for "genetic alterations at the mitochondrial level?" What is the worst that could happen?

[Tamas]

Who cares about mitochondrial DNS? Ain't that just basically the power plant for the cell proper? We inherit it from our mother "unrandomised" anyways, so its not like they are drastically decreasing genetic variaty