Crossing An Ethical Boundary

What prompted the recent headlines about genetically-modified human embryos? Why did a brief account of an experiment at Cornell University, presented last fall at an American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference and then published without fanfare in its journal Fertility and Sterility, suddenly make news around the world?

The work in question involved transferring a gene that codes for a fluorescing protein into a non-viable human embryo, and showing that all the cells in the embryo glowed after three days of cell division. As one of the research team's members later acknowledged, it was the first time that scientists are known to have created a genetically-modified human embryo.

Strangely, the study stayed beneath the public and media radar for months. It was brought to the attention of the UK's Sunday Times by Dr. David King, director of the British organization Human Genetics Alert, who came across it recently while reading a document prepared by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. The story ran in the May 11 Sunday Times and was then picked up by the Associated Press and...