A new mitochondrial donation technique called spindle nuclear transfer has been successfully used in order to prevent a child from inheriting a mitochondrial disorder:
It's not the first time scientists have created babies that have DNA from three people - that breakthrough began in the late 1990s - but it is an entirely new and significant method. [...] The US team, who travelled to Mexico to carry out the procedure because there are no laws there that prohibit it, used a method that takes all the vital DNA from the mother's egg plus healthy mitochondria from a donor egg to create a healthy new egg that can be fertilised with the father's sperm.
[...] Some have questioned whether we are only now hearing the success story while failed attempts could have gone unreported. Prof Alison Murdoch, part of the team at Newcastle University that has been at the forefront of three person IVF work in the UK, said: "The translation of mitochondrial donation to a clinical procedure is not a race but a goal to be achieved with caution to ensure both safety and reproducibility." Critics say the work is irresponsible. Dr David King from the pro-choice group Human Genetics Alert, said: "It is outrageous that they simply ignored the cautious approach of US regulators and went to Mexico, because they think they know better. Since when is a simplistic "to save lives is the ethical thing to do" a balanced medical ethics approach, especially when no lives were being saved?" Dr Zhang and his team say they will answer these questions when they presents[sic] their findings at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October.
Also at The New York Times and NPR.
First live birth using human oocytes reconstituted by spindle nuclear transfer for mitochondrial DNA mutation causing Leigh syndrome (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.08.004) (DX)
As far as I can tell, what you see in the above Fertility and Sterility paper is all that has been released.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:44AM
I'll only be concerned if they prevent people from going to China for banned medical treatments, or if China shapes up its ethical standards. China doesn't have the religious or ethical hangups that the U.S. does, but they could pretend to care.
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(Score: 2) by t-3 on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:36PM
I don't think it would be properly described as "shaping up" Chinese ethics, rather than "westernizing" them.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:57PM
I don't think that's entirely accurate either. There are Chinese ethics, but they are not particularly adhered to on the mainland. Taiwan, yes, Hong Kong, yes, Chinese Diaspora, yes. Mainland, not really. The Communists have done a lot of very thorough indoctrination to eradicate the Four Olds [wikipedia.org]. The Cultural Revolution was a horror, but its legacy remains. Deep in the night of the small village hut in the hinterland, there are traditional Chinese ethics. Come morning, it's put on the happy peasant face.
So "shaping up" mainland ethics to Chinese ethics would be a step up.
Washington DC delenda est.