designer babies

Embryo engineering breakthrough triggers criticism

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Stem cell researchers at Cornell have genetically engineered a human embryo, a pioneering development that was immediately condemned as a big step toward designing babies. The work itself was very simple: After putting a fluorescent protein gene into an embryo all the cells in the embryo glowed after it divided, giving researchers a chance to track the changes that had been engineered. The scientists emphasized that their work was done on a nonviable embryo that could never have grown into a baby.

The work, first covered by The Sunday Times, was criticized by the Center for Genetics and Society for crossing a boundary that had never been breached. Their concern is that once researchers understand how to engineer an embryo, people can design their babies with particular attributes for appearance, intelligence or athletic ability. But the scientists say the work shouldn't be misinterpreted.

"None of us wants to make designer babies," said Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

- read the article in the New York Times

Cloning advance could lead to designer babies

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:59 -0400

A new cloning method that relies on skin cells is far more efficient and easier to use than the antiquated methods employed to create Dolly the sheep. And some critics of the science are concerned that the bar may be lowered so far that researchers will be tempted to use the technology to begin to routinely offer designer babies--a realm once exclusively the preserve of science fiction writers. In the new approach, scientists injected skin cells into an early-stage embryo created through in vitro fertilization. The process produced both partial and full clones and can be replicated without the severe defects that afflicted many earlier cloned animals.

"It's unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today," Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of American biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology, told The Independent. "Cloning isn't here now, but with this new technique we have the technology that can actually produce a child. If this was applied to humans it would be enormously important and troublesome."

- read the report in The Independent

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