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Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: dpareja on September 27, 2016, 03:42:45 pm

Title: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: dpareja on September 27, 2016, 03:42:45 pm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/3-parent-baby-birth-1.3781026

Quote
A baby boy has been born using a "three parent" technique that combines DNA from three individuals, researchers report.

The now-five-month-old was born to Jordanian parents, carried by a 36-year-old mother who had four pregnancy losses and two deceased children who had Leigh syndrome.

Leigh syndrome is a fatal disorder that breaks down the central nervous system, resulting in loss of motor skills and mental ability.

The gene for the disease is found in DNA in the mitochondria, the powerhouse of a cell that provides energy. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother.

So what they did was to take the nucleus from an egg from the woman whose mitochondria carried the gene for Leigh syndrome, the mitochondria from a woman who didn't have the gene, and a sperm from the first woman's husband.

Cue the medical ethicists on whether this is a good idea.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: RavynousHunter on September 27, 2016, 10:17:26 pm
Tis a great advancement, but...honestly, I wonder if the money would've been better spent on research in birth control instead of ensuring more children are born.  We have enough people, already.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: rookie on September 27, 2016, 11:41:45 pm
We have enough people, already.

Interesting thought. I suppose it has been a couple generations since a big war or epidemic worked is way around to help out with that.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: Eiki-mun on September 28, 2016, 12:03:47 am
We have enough people, already.

Interesting thought. I suppose it has been a couple generations since a big war or epidemic worked is way around to help out with that.

In a way, you can probably thank nuclear weapons (and medical technology) for that. That said, I imagine it's only so long before something truly catastrophic happens. The conditions are right.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: rookie on September 28, 2016, 12:31:01 am
Spanish flu and 2 world wars did a pretty good job for those intuitive low tech.

All that aside, I think this is pretty remarkable. The ethics I can see being a problem down the line, but still.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: dpareja on September 28, 2016, 12:32:21 am
We have enough people, already.

Interesting thought. I suppose it has been a couple generations since a big war or epidemic worked is way around to help out with that.

In a way, you can probably thank nuclear weapons (and medical technology) for that. That said, I imagine it's only so long before something truly catastrophic happens. The conditions are right.

So... we should be cheering for Trump?
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: Eiki-mun on September 28, 2016, 01:08:13 am
I'm not a fan of mass death, mind you. But Trump will at least assure it happens to other people.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: Art Vandelay on September 28, 2016, 02:19:14 am
Spanish flu and 2 world wars did a pretty good job for those intuitive low tech.
Then the baby boom undid all of that good work.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: dpareja on September 28, 2016, 04:50:47 am
I'm not a fan of mass death, mind you. But Trump will at least assure it happens to other people.

No, Trump will ensure it happens to everyone, by wiping out all the federal environmental protections in the US and allowing the atmosphere to be pumped full of god-knows-what pollutants, likely making the planet too hot for humans to inhabit within the lifetime of anyone under 50, certainly 40.

Obama will start the process, however, by ramming the TPP through in the lame-duck session (aided and abetted by other corporatist shill traitors like Justin Trudeau and Christy Clark), which will allow multinational corporations to sue jurisdictions over most any law (including environmental protections) that cuts into their profits, both overturning the law and bankrupting the jurisdiction in question by forcing them to make up the lost profits. This would be done in an international court from which there would be no appeal.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: RavynousHunter on September 28, 2016, 07:38:15 am
I'm a fan of the spell Mass Death for when you have more hit points than sense.
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: fancy_kitten on October 06, 2016, 03:12:11 pm
Does this mean polyamorous people can have kids now?
Title: Re: First successful three-parent baby born
Post by: Sigmaleph on October 06, 2016, 10:26:49 pm
We could have kids before...

(I don't think they'd do this sort of thing just because someone asked, without medical necessity)