Aggregated News
Alana Saarinen sat at the piano, playing smoothly and with feeling. Behind her, plastic toys shared floor space with a book of plays she’d been writing. Her mother beamed.
Alana is apparently a normal, well-adjusted 13-year-old. But there is something extraordinary about her — every cell in her body is different in a way that is nearly unprecedented.
Alana was conceived with genetic material from three parents: Sharon and Paul Saarinen, who provided the egg and sperm, and a second woman who contributed genes to Alana’s mitochondria, the tiny power plants that fuel every cell.
The experimental technique making this possible — a cytoplasmic transfer, in Alana’s case — was halted by the Food and Drug Administration in 2001. Now, despite uncertainties about its safety, scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom are urging legalization of a more targeted version. Critics say it hasn’t been adequately studied and crosses the line into genetic engineering.
“We’re mixing the DNA of two women in a single baby,” said Sheldon Krimsky, a bioethicist and professor of urban and environmental...
Alana is apparently a normal, well-adjusted 13-year-old. But there is something extraordinary about her — every cell in her body is different in a way that is nearly unprecedented.
Alana was conceived with genetic material from three parents: Sharon and Paul Saarinen, who provided the egg and sperm, and a second woman who contributed genes to Alana’s mitochondria, the tiny power plants that fuel every cell.
The experimental technique making this possible — a cytoplasmic transfer, in Alana’s case — was halted by the Food and Drug Administration in 2001. Now, despite uncertainties about its safety, scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom are urging legalization of a more targeted version. Critics say it hasn’t been adequately studied and crosses the line into genetic engineering.
“We’re mixing the DNA of two women in a single baby,” said Sheldon Krimsky, a bioethicist and professor of urban and environmental...