But the baby (assuming down the road they do produce a child this way) is getting something from the mitochondrial DNA. It does something, else there would be no need to do this procedure. I wonder what the potential upshoot of this are. I'm not smart enough to figure it out, just smart enough to know that the potential child is getting something from that DNA.
susie
You are right, and I did not intend to say otherwise. The mitochondrial DNA does serve CERTAIN purposes; and those purposes become all the more apparent when there is a defect in that DNA. But those purposes are far more limited than the DNA in the chromosomes. From a genetic standpoint this is something of a small "patch" to a large code.
But there is an important distinction here, and that is that this technique is meant for theraputic purposes; that is, to prevent certain disorders from arising in the child. That is not to say that the ethical costs are too high: this is like embryonic stem-cell research in that respect.
Considering that there are 700,000 children in Russia growing up in sterile institutions with scant hope for adoption, and millions more unwanted, already-born children all over the rest of the world, there's no need to do this procedure in the first place.