British politicians will today decide whether Britain should become the first country in the world that allows for Babies with three parents – in the sense that babies have germplasm from three people.
Politicians treat a proposal to change the existing Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, 2008. Is there a majority for the amendment, it shall further be approved by the upper house 23 February before the first trials with fertilization with three parents can happen from October this year.
The purpose of this technology is to avoid serious mitochondrial disease from mother transferred to the child, a disease most die off within a few years.
What does it mean that a child has three genetic parents?
“Mitochondrial replacement” or “nucleus replacement” is that it is based on a fresh donor eggs woman, and removes the cell nucleus. It is the nucleus one finds genetic material, human DNA.
So transmits one mother cell nucleus – into the fresh donor woman coreless eggs. This egg is then placed into the test tube technology, and the baby will have genetic material from his father and two women. This can be done before or after fertilization.
Researchers have gotten so fertilization attempts, but so far no such human babies have been carried forward. Experiments with monkeys have been successful, where small apebabyer with germplasm from a total of three parents were born healthy.
What role does the third person?
Although the fetus will consist of three persons germplasm is donor contributions (less than 0.2 percent) vanishingly small compared with the two parental genbidrag.
The British Democracy reproductive technology, The Human Frtilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), recommends is that the donor considered vevsdonor and the identity remains anonymous.
What is mitochondrial diseases?
All cells contain mitochondria – referred to as the cells’ power plants. ” Disturbances in these plants affects especially quickly the body’s most energy demanding organs; brain, heart, kidneys and liver.
Mitochondrial Disease caused inherited error from the mother, in the cell mitochondrial, or cell mitochondria works inside. There is currently no effective medical behandlingav disease.
What are the symptoms of these diseases?
The disease can produce very different symptoms, and frame at different times of life. But for children who become ill before the age of two years resulting disease is often in the failure of vital organs and rapid death.
Some children may develop difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, loss of skills and unsteadiness. Others may experience vision loss, hearing loss, diabetes, blood disease, liver disease, kidney disease, eplilepsi, stroke and heart disease.
Read more about the various manifestations of the disease in the Norwegian Medical Handbook.
How many affected?
It is not a very common disease, but serious for those it affects. Around one in 5,000 Britons affected by mitochondrial disease, that is around 2,500 women of reproductive age bearer of cells with sick mitochondria.
There are no exact figures for how many Norwegians suffer from mitochondrial disease, but the Norwegian Mitochondrial Association 230 members.
What are the arguments against technology?
The main arguments against technology is that this is the first step towards genetically modified “design babies”, that technology is not ethically defensible and that one does not know the complete medical repercussions.
Thursday went the English church out and warned politicians to approve the technology. They believe it is not sufficiently proven that no genetic material that affects the baby’s other characteristics – from appearance to character traits – also transferred.
What are the arguments for technology?
The main arguments for the technology is that the procedure in a relatively simple manner can save thousands of children for a painful and short life.
Nuffield Council of Bioethics concluded after a six-month consultation that it is ethically acceptable to offer this technology, provided that it is medically safe. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has produced three reports, which concludes that this type of fertilization can be carried out safely.
A number of researchers and medical heavyweights, such as government top medical adviser Dame Sally Davies, mean procedure is as undramatic as replacing a defective car battery or to donate blood.
Is it necessary to open this in Norway?
The Norwegian Biotechnology Council, former Bioteknologinemda has not treated this technology specifically. The reason is that the Norwegian biotechnology law does not allow egg donation, which is a prerequisite for this procedure.
But the government wants to revise the Biotechnology Act of 2003, egg donation is one of conflict issues.
When Aftenposten inquired with the Norwegian parties, the time it became known that the British government wanted to treat mitochondrial technology policy, both Krf, Fremskrittspartet and Right negative. Neither Labor wants technology in Norway pr. Today, however, they would not rule out that it may be necessary sometime in the future.
Published:
No comments:
Post a Comment