Despite Calls for a Moratorium, More ‘Three-Parent’ Babies Expected Soon
By Emily Mullin,
One Zero
| 09. 16. 2019
Clinics in Europe say they will continue offering a controversial IVF procedure
At least 10 babies have been born to apparently infertile women as a result of a controversial in vitro fertilization procedure that involves combining a mother’s egg with a donor one. The technique is often referred to as “three-person IVF” because the baby ends up with DNA from three people — the mother, the father, and an egg donor.
One of the births was reported in April by a Greek clinic performing the procedure, also known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, or mitochondrial donation. Now, fertility experts in Europe are calling for a moratorium on using the technique for women who have struggled to conceive.
The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) has issued a statement urging “extreme caution” on the use of mitochondrial replacement for cases of infertility. The organization, which represents 8,000 clinicians and scientists, says there’s not enough evidence to show that it produces higher live-birth rates than conventional IVF. However, OneZero has learned that despite the group’s recommendation, the Greek clinic, as well as another center in Ukraine, will continue to offer the procedure —... see more
Related Articles
We were shocked — shocked — to learn that 23andMe is cashing in on its customers’ spit. $3.5 billion, the company is worth, they say, now that it’s going public. That is an awful lot of $99 gene tests! Except that the business model is not, and never has been, about cash flow from individual customers. No, the big money is in leasing out genetic data to pharmaceutical companies and other researchers.
Forgive us, just this once: We told...
"Black-footed Ferret Kits" by USFWS Mountain Prairie
is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The New York Times published on February 18 an enthusiastic article about a black-footed ferret, hailing it as “the first of any native, endangered animal species in North America to be cloned.”
By Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker | 02.15.2021
In computer science, the main outlets for peer-reviewed research are not journals but conferences, where accepted papers are presented in the form of talks or posters. In June, 2019, at a large artificial-intelligence conference in Long Beach, California, called Computer...
By Adam Feuerstein, STAT | 02.16.2021
Bluebird Bio said Tuesday that it has suspended clinical trials involving its gene therapy for sickle cell disease after receiving reports that two patients treated with the one-time therapy were diagnosed with cancer.
The trials were placed on “temporary suspension”...