UK Set to Legalize Babies With DNA From 3 Parents
By KQED,
KQED Radio [With CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
| 02. 06. 2015
Download audio (MP3)
After a parliamentary vote earlier this week, the United Kingdom is set to become the first country to legalize making a baby with DNA from three parents. The controversial procedure, which prevents mothers from passing on genetic diseases to their children, involves replacing faulty DNA in a mother's eggs with healthy DNA from a third person. Critics say the procedure raises many ethical questions. But British Prime Minister David Cameron said, "We're not playing God here, we're just making sure that two parents who want a healthy baby can have one." We'll discuss the technology and explore whether the U.S. and other countries may follow Britain's lead.
Host: Mina Kim
Guests:
- Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences and law professor at Stanford University
- Marcelle Cedars, professor and director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at UCSF
- Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society
More info:
Related Articles
By Tomoko Otake, The Japan Times | 04.09.2024
A decade ago, researcher Haruko Obokata caused a sensation when she published two papers in the journal Nature, in which she claimed that she had discovered a way to create stem cells easily using the so-called STAP method.
With STAP...
By Yelena Biberman and Jonathan D. Moreno, Bioethics Forum | 04.16.2024
A quiet biological revolution in warfare is underway. The genome is emerging as a new domain of conflict. The level of destruction that only nuclear weapons could previously achieve is fast becoming as accessible as a cyberattack.
Now for the...
By Jorge Barrera and Rachel Houlihan, CBC | 04.09.2024
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found...
By Eleanor Hayward and Joanna Crawford, The Times | 03.29.2024
Gazing out at the Mediterranean from an idyllic rocky mountaintop, Sophie Hermann announced to her half a million Instagram followers that she had decided to freeze her eggs. Since that post in August, the 37-year-old former Made in Chelsea star...