Slowing the Rush to Genetically Modified Babies
By Enola Aird,
MomsRising
| 03. 22. 2014
We are heading toward a slippery slope. The United Kingdom is moving closer to allowing scientists to create genetically modified children – something no country in the world currently authorizes.
I posted
in December about how the United States and the U.K. were going down a dangerous road. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the key U.K. regulator on these matters,
recently issued (on very short notice), a “Call for evidence” on issues of safety and efficacy, with a deadline of today, March 21, 2014.
HFEA has released draft regulations that would allow clinical trials of techniques that would create “three-person embryos.” These methods are proposed as a way to help a very small number of women with certain mitochondrial diseases to avoid passing those diseases on to genetically related children. The draft notes that “the Government has decided to proceed with regulations. However, before taking the decision to submit regulations for the scrutiny and approval of Parliament, we will…reconvene the Expert Panel a further time to provide an updated assessment of the safety and efficacy of these techniques.”...
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