The US House of Representatives is wading into the debate over whether human embryos should be modified to introduce heritable changes. Its fiscal year 2016 spending bill for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would prohibit the agency from spending money to evaluate research or clinical applications for such products.
In an unusual twist, the bill—introduced on June 17—would also direct the FDA to create a committee that includes religious experts to review a forthcoming report from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM). The IOM's analysis, which considers the ethics of creating embryos that have three genetic parents, was commissioned by the FDA.
The House legislation comes during a time of intense debate on such matters, sparked by the announcement in April that researchers in China had edited the genomes of human embryos. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) moved quickly to remind the public that a 1996 law prevents the federal government from funding work that destroys human embryos or creates them for research purposes.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-congress-moves-to-block-human-embryo-editing/
[Source]: http://www.nature.com/news/us-congress-moves-to-block-human-embryo-editing-1.17858
We covered a related story, Three-Person Babies Could Be Possible in Two Years just over a year ago.
(Score: 1) by deathlyslow on Tuesday June 30 2015, @03:58PM
How does it target only people with treatable disorders? If you are meaning creating them to then harvest the stem cells I can sort of understand it, but if you aren't I don't see the connection beyond tweaking an embryo so the then person never the get the disease in the first place. The last I checked the test's aren't 100% on if you will get the disease but more of you have a higher probability to get it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:10PM
In this particular case, we're talking about maternal inherited mitochondrial disorders.
These diseases are 95% or more heritable. And they're treatable by just using a different host egg for the genetic information from the mother and father. No more complicated than standard in vitro fertilization, really.
I dare you to tell one patient suffering from one of these diseases that your moral system demands others suffer like them [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @05:06PM
It is God's will that you suffer. God made you that way, therefore it is His will and you must suffer, for that is God's Plan™ for you. Similarly, it was God's will that you be raped, and since you were raped you MUST carry the child to term and spend the next 18+ years raising it, for it is God's will, else you would not have been raped and impregnated.
(Score: 1) by deathlyslow on Tuesday June 30 2015, @06:21PM
If that last link was directed at me and I offended you sorry, I thought I was asking out of ignorance not malice. That's why I listed the things that I could see and asked for you/someone else to fill me in on those I couldn't. Damn it Jim, I'm an IT manager not a doctor... - it's a joke get it... I'm a doctor not a (insert profession here) kind of funny. :)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday June 30 2015, @06:41PM
I read your tone as harsher than it was. I think my point is still relevant to the larger discussion, but it didn't need to be so pointed in the conversation we were having.
An apology is due. Sorry.
(Score: 1) by deathlyslow on Tuesday June 30 2015, @11:12PM
No problem. There's no inflection on typed words. I appreciate the apology though. It never hurts to be civil to each other. I appreciate the link to. I always enjoy learning things. I'm actually an odd ball in that I have Ehlers-Danlos and can see some of the benefits of adjusting for if not outright removing it from the genepool. My poor sister has it much worse than I do in that it affects her heart as well as her connective tissue. Mine only really affects my skin and joints. I've already had both knees done twice both shoulders done once each and about ready to get them done again. I bruise easily as it is. I actually have low pressure glaucoma due to it and have minir optic nerve damage as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @10:10PM
And yet they could also just adopt, rather than having kids when they know the kids will inherit problems like that.