Genetically modified babies born
 

A beginning or the beginning of the end?


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World's first GM babies born
The world's first genetically modified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.

The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.

So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found
to contain genes from three 'parents'.

Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.

The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.

Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one man.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.

Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.

Some experts severely criticised the experiments.

Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.

'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.'
Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.

They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.

Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.

Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies.

He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab.
Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF.
Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children --a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community.

'It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students,' he said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three' individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2sge0RylE
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Gattaca comes to life.

Sorry stuff like Gattaca has been happening for at least 50 years. People that really think this is the first time are being naive. For this procedure maybe but I'd say safely there are 10s of thousands of people who have been genetically enhanced already.

I have an issue of OMNI magazine (anyone remember that???) from like 1985 that discussed many of the "ground breaking" techniques we here about now in the mainstream media. Hard to imagine we just sat on the tech for the last 30 some years.

EDIT: Ok I just checked it was 1988. And yes I know that OMNI was the trashy tabloid of science mags but what was great about it was they would publish ANYTHING and let you decide what had merit. You got tons of garbage but also tons of stuff that was ahead of its time. Oh and I was 13/14 in 1988 so don't judge me!

you know the soviets, chinese, east german's haven't, hell probably not even the Nazi's. The only saving grace for that one is that they wouldn't have had much time.

we are going to **** our species up.

We aren't even smart enough to govern ourselves. What is going to happen when we really start altering our genetic code only to find out in 3 generations those modifications aren't compatible and we are going extinct.

in 20 years nothing will be able to live in the gulf!

Bring them in for a look?

Kahhhhhhnnnn......

seriously. I have no problem with this. We are quickening our evolution.
Done correctly you could condition humans to live elsewhere. Travel the stars. Live in harsher conditions on earth.

Hell. Eventually you could become gods.

will be interesting 20 years from now if the modified humans become prevalent how religion will alter their stance on history or take credit.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but this wasn't something that was revealed a day ago. This is a story that's been around for a few years. The Daily Mail is a ****ing joke.

A little late but it seems that the Eugenics Wars aren't that far off.

GMO is so dangerous, no way would I be feeding these to my family

over/under?

I, for one, will welcome our new overlords.

Don't worry, I will strive to be a benevolent dictator.

Now let us begin to build our master race of fullbacks.

I wonder if they could slip me a genetic Roofie and help me grow a porn dick?

They will have to be labeled as a GMO.
Countries will ban these people from entering their country and they should not get close to any Monarch butterfly.

We've been altering our genetic code since the caveman days, just in a slower manner. This is simply taking a shortcut. There's really no such thing as incompatibility. That's the beauty of the human body. It will simply adapt. There's no defined point where the human genetic makeup could change so much that it just wouldn't work anymore. That's just not how it works. It's actually more the opposite. The more diverse the genetic makeup, the better the odds of overall survival for the species. We don't really want our DNA to remain static. Life must change and adapt. This is simply giving it a little nudge.

The article makes it sound pretty Frankensteinish. But I'd disagree that the scientific community shuns it. I'd bet a considerable amount that this shit has been going on for decades with all kinds of species.

Those babies must have vast football knowledge.

Name that baby Mon Santo

Well, if nothing else, they should be beaker fans..

Maybe we'll genetically modify humans that are intelligent enough to use genetic modification responsibly.

Well Bronco fans are proof that genetics might need a little help, so maybe this isn't so wrong after all..

Dr. Ian Malcolm:

"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, um... staggers me."

Cool old magazine. Bob "Penthouse" Guccione started it.

My prediction in the early 80's when I taught school becomes reality

Breed out the dem gene

You have an the entire DC forum to do this shit and you just can't keep your mouth shut in here.

is it like a Tourette thing?

If one of the moms was Jewish does that make the baby a Jew? Is that something that everyone could just slip in when this becomes popular?

That whole Holocaust thing really gets to me, man. Some of my moms were Jewish.

Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'

Anyone else find it ironic that someone with the title "Lord" doesn't want babies that might be superior to him created?

I can honestly say in all my life that I've not met a single person who is an openly Jewish person like portrayed on TV. Not one.

I've met the Jehovah's Witnesses, an ass ton of Baptists, Catholics and Methodists but not a single Jewish person.

Where the **** are they?

What exactly do you mean by openly Jewish person like portrayed on TV ?
Can you give some examples?

It appears that you live in BFE SE Kansas.


There is your answer.

Go to a city in the NE.

OK, this made me laugh. I had to re-read... Me thinkst there's some word-play going on, or you live in this part of Kansas. :D

http://0.static.wix.com/media/36c82c...7e78c.jpg_1024

Not really new news.

Psychiatrist

Jesus Christ!!!!



Wait......

Or modify them not to wear pajamas and Crocs in Walmarts when they are shopping.

[QUOTE=Valiant;10419794]



Hell. Eventually you could become gods.
/QUOTE]
...where I have heard this before?

not water, but fire next time!

I honestly don't think I'd have a problem with that.

My problem would be the sustainability of the planet. All these people would grow up disease free and live 100+ years of healthy living. I guess if it did get to that point, we would have to be compelled to travel to the stars to search out other livable worlds.

You are assuming that with a longer life span and greater confidence in survivability would not alter birthrates.

History has shown that it does alter birthrates, it makes them lower and people have kids at an older age.

Point.

I guess the question would become would the sum of the population that was not able to receive the genetic therapy continue to procreate at the same rate?

I guess it raises a number of questions, mainly would the therapy be offered worldwide, or only to the first world countries?

But yet stem cell research is limited.

It wouldn't help me with it being 10 years ago anyways?

So you're saying no Jewish people live in kansas?

17

I would think it would reflect now. Well off families have a few kids, welfare families have five plus. Homo Superiors would have one or two, norms would have twice that.

Hopefully to just first world. But it would eventually leach to 3rd. Those people would conquer and control with a iron fist. Just think of Africa now, now imagine a select few warlords genetically splicing their kids to control easier.

It is almost the same thing, you can treat deficiencies and correct them. Imagine stem cell procedures twenty years from now. Grow damaged limbs/organs.

My question has always been. What happens if you infuse healthy areas of the body with stem cells. Like muscles or certain areas of the brain. Would it stimulate greater use?

Doctors are already doing some of this. In my understanding, it's pretty specific at the moment, regarding what it can and cannot do. But it's a start. They're actively working on it at least. Impossible to predict, but I'd venture to guess we'll be seeing some amazing things in this regard over the next few decades.

This is from 2011:
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2011/september/geron.html

Thanks for the link. My problem is it seems as though as these stem cell trials are done for folks who have recent SCI.
I'd love to find out what these '11 tests proved. The only thing they mention is the fact the stem cell procedure was safe, no results.




I'm an old hot rodder. I really enjoy my old muscle cars, have since high school. I now have the car I would have ordered new, my dream car.

I would sell it & any other material objects for a chance to walk again. If the stem cell would at least bring back my bowel & bladder functions I think I'd be happy.

I would think long term SCIs have a chance for organ function return but the muscle atrophy is probably beyond recovery. :(

I wonder what the pain level would be for repaired nerves but still atrophied muscles?

levittown new york.

This is good news IMO. The gene pool needs a booster.

Just watch an episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

You do realize that people like that are reproducing at 100x the rate of people who can afford designer in-vitro, right?

Two chicks at once? Science!

If they can trick the body into regrowing the spinal cord, then the muscles should be easy.

The body can actually regrow spinal nerve tissue it doesn't because there is the potential for worse injury and pain then having a severed spinal cord.

The thing is you want to rich to adapt technology because they drive the innovation with the inflated prices they pay to make it cheaper and more efficient to produce.

Also, anybody who wants replacement body parts wants the research being done now on adult stem cells to get more funding then infant stem cells. One there is a much greater supply that gets replenished and two using your own stem cells means no rejection syndrome.

Thanks for the interest.

A while back I was going to a gym working with a personal trainer. It was crazy, my right thigh muscle grew but my left one didn't. When I flexed (sporadic feeling below waist) the muscles bulged on the right but not left.

I don't know a lot about atrophy except I now have a couple toothpicks which is unfortunate since I'd always had pretty muscular legs'.

:thumb:

I wonder what effect HGH,Test etc would have on the regrowth process?

Meh, we could use some improvement. Have you seen some of the fooked up mouth breathers walking/waddling around out there in the world?

we aren't improving emotions,morals,kindness etc

we are just making healthier,stronger and longer living mouth breathers.

I liked when they had the sexy surrealist paintings.

Yeah, so? I'll take an Eli Manning type and his mouth breathing athleticism over some 300lb chick waddling around Wal-Mart.