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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.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Touché) by TrumpetPower! on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:36PM
Just effin' great.
So, in the most advanced medical research ever undertaken, we're going to give veto power to people who take seriously the proposition that the first humans were lovingly hand-crafted mud sculptures created by an angry wizard in an enchanted garden with talking animals.
Okay, okay. So maybe they won't all be as fundamentalist as Catholics [vatican.va]...but that just means that they think that same angry wizard telepathetically communicated that same story about the mud people to the shamans of a Bronze Age warrior cult, and that some sort of deep and significant transcendental truth is contained therein.
What's next? Consulting astrologers before the next NASA mission? Having alchemists review the plans for the NIF? Maybe putting exorcists in charge of the NIMH?
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1) by kanweg on Tuesday June 30 2015, @05:58PM
"So, in the most advanced medical research ever undertaken, we're going to give veto power to people who take seriously the proposition that the first humans were lovingly hand-crafted mud sculptures created by an angry wizard in an enchanted garden with talking animals."
That sharp observation is brilliantly phrased.
Bert
(Tips the hat in admiration)
PS I don't think they'll be given veto power but still
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Tuesday June 30 2015, @07:08PM
Hmm.. That's an interesting document you got there.
I'm not sure how representative of current day Catholicism it really is though. Check this one out..
http://www.newsweek.com/pope-franciss-remarks-evolution-are-not-controversial-among-roman-catholics-281115 [newsweek.com]
Now.. if you replaced Catholics with Protestants... especially US Protestants... your statement would make a whole lot of sense.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday June 30 2015, @11:17PM
If you're making a motion to nominate Pope Francis, I second that.