A new and controversial genetic modification technique that uses the genes of two women (as female donors) and one man (as a male donor) can be approved in England next 2015 and could help eradicate certain inherited diseases.
Of course, as any genetic modification technique is not without controversy, but if everything goes as it should, it is very likely that in 2015 a genetically modified baby with three parents will be born in England.
A baby with three parents?
We should say that it would rather be a baby with three parents or three "genetic donors" (get used to the word that we will hear muco in the future). The in vitro fertilization technique uses the genetic material of two women, inserting part of the first material into the ovule of the second, so actually the fertilization is "normal", because in the end there is only one ovule and one sperm.
Background
In the human cell there are two different types of genetic material or DNA, one is in the nucleus of the cells and is what we normally know as chromosomes, the other is inside some organs that are inside the cells and are called mitochondria (Keep the name also because it seems to have a lot to do with our longevity).
In England, one in 200 children is born with a severe disease caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA that can cause muscle loss, heart problems, nerve damage and blindness.
The technique
This technique is intended to reduce the number of diseases caused by mitochondrial DNA by replacing it with a healthy one. And how do we do that? Well, replacing the mitochondria of the ovule with the mitochondria with healthy donor DNA. That is why having two female donors, because the mitochondria are only transmitted through the mother. That is, dear reader, your mitochondria are those that your mother left at the time that in turn received them from his.
The controversy
According to the doctors who oppose this technique, we are at the door for genetic manipulation and the beginning of the dreaded "children on demand", that is, "it makes me blond and with green eyes"
According to its inventors, this technique does not really manipulate the baby's "main" genetic material, since the new material does not influence the physical appearance or personality and its chromosomes are not modified either.
I believe that everything that is done to improve people's lives and what we can move forward in the eradication of diseases is always good news. It is clear that there will always be unscrupulous people who can go beyond the morally reasonable or that there are discrepancies in where the line separates the moral from self-centered self-centeredness from the human being. Who knows, we may never see it, that only time will tell.
