Posted on 10/14/2003 8:41:15 AM PDT by cpforlife.org
An attempt to cure infertility by creating babies with three genetic parents was halted when twins died in the womb, it emerged yesterday.
The experiment, in which researchers combined elements from two newly-conceived eggs to create a single viable embryo, was designed to help women whose eggs are not good enough to reactivate a pregnancy.
But while two of the "reconstructed" embryos developed into foetuses in the womb, one died at 24 weeks and the other at 29 weeks.
American researchers who handed the work over to colleagues in China, after the experiment was effectively banned in the United States, said the technique had the potential to treat infertile women. But they admitted that further attempts were now unlikely.
Details of the experiment were presented yesterday at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr James Grifo, of New York University, who worked on animal tests of the technique, said the miscarriages were due to complications related to a multiple pregnancy.
He added that the technique could be invaluable to women whose eggs were not healthy enough to take a pregnancy beyond the first few hours.
Researchers at the Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Science, Guangzhou, fertilised the woman's egg and the healthy egg from an anonymous donor.
Once they were sure both eggs had been fertilised, they removed the donor egg's nucleus - the blob which carries human chromosomes. They then transferred the nucleus from the infertile woman's egg and placed it into the empty donor "shell".
The reconstructed egg was reactivated with a burst of electricity and, with help from the donated egg's cell machinery, it began to divide normally.
Although the embryo's nuclear DNA came from its parents, it also inherited some DNA from the anonymous donor. This genetic material, known as mitochondrial DNA, is only passed down by mothers and is found in almost every cell in the body.
It is involved in providing energy for cells and varies little from person to person. Dr Grifo said he was unhappy with the description of an embryo with three parents.
"I think that it is a very misleading statement," he said. "Mitochondrial DNA of two people is not that different and it constitutes a small percentage of the total DNA. It's not poetically incorrect but it is scientifically very incorrect to say that because mitochondrial DNA does not contribute very much to what a person looks like. I would argue that this is more like an organ transplantation."
The 30-year-old Chinese woman chosen for the experiment had no children and had failed to get pregnant despite two attempts at IVF.
Although she had conceived several times, her eggs stopped growing soon after conception, suggesting that the egg machinery was faulty.
By combining two fertilised eggs, the researchers created five viable embryos, all of which were implanted into her womb.
Three implanted successfully but, to reduce the risks to the woman and children, one was later removed.
Dr Grifo said the problems were caused by implanting too many embryos, not the egg combining technique. The procedure had been tried out successfully on mice, he said.
The US team was stopped by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998 after a crackdown on fertility experiments. Dr Grifo blamed "abortion politics" for the effective ban.
China announced last week that it would outlaw embryo research, he added. As well as helping women with flawed eggs, the treatment could also help women suffering from mitochondrial disease.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said a similar experiment would be illegal in Britain.
This propaganda won't fly. The "It will cure all illness forever and ever" worked pretty well to distract from the real horror of what they were doing. Many people fell for that one.
Don't they know that they aren't 'alive' till they leave the womb and are declared as such by the liberals?
Reactivate a pregnancy? This writer has no idea what he is talking about.
Also, I doubt that the reason for the deaths at 24 and 29 weeks were for "complications related to a multiple pregnancy". The risks in a twin pregnancy are not that great. The highest risks come when the two share a placenta, which could not have happened here since they were separate embryos.
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My thoughts too, though I don't know that "millions" is accurate. The Chinese policy of one child has lead to the abortion of many females or their placement in Chinese orphanages.
Playing God is the Devil's work....
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