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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a historic public meeting last week, considering for the first time experiments that would alter the human genome. The proposed technology, which has been performed successfully in monkeys, would incorporate genetic material from three individuals: a mother, a father, and another woman who would contribute a healthy mitochondria, the cellular body that contains its own DNA, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), the source of many debilitating genetic conditions.
The newly created DNA mix would be passed on to future generations – a permanent, heritable, man-made genetic change that has previously been viewed as an ethical line in the sand. Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics have been working with journalists to explain the science and related ethical issues.
By mixing new DNA into the germline (the lineage of reproductive cells that combine to create a new person), “we’re not treating humans. We’re creating humans. There’s not a model for that,” Jeffrey Kahn, the Berman Institute’s Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy, told Science magazine.
“One of the reasons...
The newly created DNA mix would be passed on to future generations – a permanent, heritable, man-made genetic change that has previously been viewed as an ethical line in the sand. Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics have been working with journalists to explain the science and related ethical issues.
By mixing new DNA into the germline (the lineage of reproductive cells that combine to create a new person), “we’re not treating humans. We’re creating humans. There’s not a model for that,” Jeffrey Kahn, the Berman Institute’s Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy, told Science magazine.
“One of the reasons...