Nature unbound

“…we know already that even fiddling with the mitochondria may make a massive difference to what happens to the nuclear DNA.  It’s still not clear.  And it’s worth bearing in mind that abnormal children have been born as a result of mitochondrial transfer. This has been completely unpredictable.”’ Lord Winston.

PARLIAMENT HAS DECIDED TO allow the three-parent HIV process to go ahead. We are the only country so far to allow such a development and once more  another advancement in medical science has brought with it great moral challenges for society that should have been debated thoroughly before being allowed to proceed. Such a debate has by-passed 80% of the population. If we carried  out a vox-pop of ordinary people in any street in any city, town, or village; nine out of ten would not know of, let alone understand the three-parent process. I myself only understood it recently, and it disturbs me greatly .

                

                As I understand it, it  involves replacing the mitochondria of a mutated form with the 'healthy' mitochondria from a donor -  the third person in the scenario.

                

                Mitochondria is found in all human cells and is only inherited from the mother. It is the chemical power house of the human cell and a mutant form can seriously harm and bring about the early deaths for those who inherit the flawed DNA of such mitochondria.

                

                What the three-parent procedure does is remove the nucleus from a cell containing the mutated mitochondria, and, via a third person, insert this nucleus into a cell containing healthy mitochondria from the  donor (the third parent), by removing its nucleus and replacing it with the nucleus from the mutated mitochondria. This procedure of course is done during the very early stage of a forming embryo.

                

                This replacement will then hopefully allow the birth of a healthy child who will then lead a normal life, and pass down through its germ line this genetic fix, for want of a better word. The perfect solution in fact to one of nature's many imperfections. But man is as equally imperfect as nature and no consideration has been given to this fact.

                

                All the various genetic changes we will be competent to make in  the future for the right and proper reasons will sooner or later result in unintended consequences – I do not see as many do, geneticists (or scientists generally) as Frankensteinian. Their immediate solutions may temporarily solve the immediate needs of the inherited forms of suffering shown on the media. There will always be good reason for such genetic alchemy, but what will the long term effects for humanity be?

                 

                When you alter the germ line, as will happen with third-parent gene therapy you open up a new genetic stream with the same genetic propensity to mutate. At the very least it will conjure up new problems – and possibly new inherited diseases over time directly attributed to such therapy.

GENETICISTS  RIGHTLY concentrate upon ways of combating the many inherited diseases that mankind faces. The whole of genetics and of medicine is rightly focused on this; and therefore immediacy rather than the long term is their primary focus.

                

                 The technicalities of all forms of genetic modification is driven by human suffering; which of course is no bad thing. But what of the history of genes and their multi-billion possible adaptations over time that produced homo-sapiens and modern man?

                

                 This same process will be orchestrated by human attempts at genetic modification. The third-parent development is another attempt at overcoming the cruelties of nature. But any so-called genetic solution will only add to the appearance over time of further genetic diseases attributable to such procedures – evolution remains unconquerable by science.

SCIENCE BRINGS SOLUTIONS, but society must be the final arbiter of any new procedure that creates a moral dilemma for humanity. For instance, this latest innovation could lead somewhere down the line to designer babies, where mere fashion replaces inherited diseases and medical need. We are governed by our genes. The gene is the unit of selection according to Richard Dawkins; and we now know that genetic engineering (or to use the more comfortable phrase 'gene therapy') can be used to alter human characteristics as well as dispose of inherited diseases.

                

                We humans are narcissistic by nature. We care about the shape of our bodies, all inherited: we want to be beautiful, have the (fashionably speaking) right colour eyes, hair, and the right shaped nose, and if we cannot advance these desires for ourselves, then we will do it through our embryonic children. In the future any minor inherited imperfections treatable by gene therapy will make a fool of science and its one intended purpose of eliminating life-threatening genetic diseases.

                

                Parents will seek for their embryonic offspring the physical ideal they have for themselves whether a girl or boy, from gender to minor traits that they feel are out of fashion and belief they themselves have been 'cursed' with.

I HAVE AN INHERITED CONDITION that might be eliminated through a third parent genetic procedure; but it leaves a nasty taste. For me two parents are quite sufficient and have stood the test of many a millennia.

                

Genes are the blue print of our existence. The vast majority of mutations that occur benefit mankind; indeed have created mankind. Mutations are the stuff of evolution usually forced by adaptation. Today the popular media sees mutated genes as somehow life threatening, but they have often been our saviours.

                

                In parts of East Africa a genetic adaptation has resulted in delivering protection against malaria (we see the same process with Ebola in West Africa were some remain immune to the disease). But it also proves that mutations are, like many humans, not very good strategists. For the malaria mutation to be successful it has to be inherited by from just one parent.

                

                If both parents pass the same mutated gene on to their child then cycle cell anaemia  is almost guaranteed, and is quite common among  Afro- Caribbean's. Cycle cell anaemia is a very painful condition. Cycle cell refers to the red blood cells which carry oxygen throughout the body and into the brain. Healthy red blood cells should abound. The cycle cell ones however, are as the name suggests, shaped in the form cycle, thus limiting the amount of oxygen being transported throughout the body, thus causing cycle cell anaemia.