Tampering with Evolution? "Three Parent Embryos"

The following article I wrote for Bioethics.net is reproduced here with permission03/04/2014TAMPERING WITH EVOLUTION? “THREE PARENT EMBRYOS”by Maurice Bernstein, MDBabies are born with  a progressive neurometabolic disorder with a general onset in infancy or childhood, often after a viral infection, but can also occur in teens and adults.  The disease is seen on MRI as dead or dying tissue within the brain and though the child appears normal at birth,  in a few months to two years of age, though earlier or later,  there is loss of basic skills and finally the child may have  heart, kidney, vision and breathing complications.  What is this disorder?  It is a congenital disease carried by the mitochondrial DNA genes of the mother and called  Leigh’s Disease.  Another disorder found in mother’s egg (oocyte) mitochondria  are the  Creatine Deficiency Syndromes characterized  in the child by mental retardation, expressive speech and language delay, autistic like behavior, hyperactivity, epilepsy and movement disorders. And there even many more congenital disorders expressed by abnormal mitochondria and some are described at the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation website.A problem in anticipating these disorders  is that the women carrying these abnormal mitochondrial diseases may be healthy.  The possibilities of a mitochondrial DNA abnormality may only be suggested by analysis of the woman’s...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs