This issue is potentially very technical if you don't have a biology background. Everyone knows these days that people have DNA and get some of each from their parents. But the DNA from the mother is actually two separate sorts. This experiment takes one kind from one mother and the other kind from a second mother.

The bottom line is that this is not really like the other gene fixes and transplants; in this case the offspring effectively has three biological parents.

There is nothing obviously wrong with having three biological parents instead of two. But it sure confuses a lot of social conceptions of relationship. And of course, it's not natural at all. I can readily imagine conservatives claiming that God demands that we have one mother and one father, not some other combination, the same way they claim marriage is one man and one woman.

There is also a more difficult to describe potential, well, question. This second kind of DNA from the mother (mitochondrial) never mixes with the father's DNA. It continues in an unchanged line from mother to daughter indefinitely. By deeming some lines inferior because they can cause disease, we are significantly interfering with the human genome. Maybe for the better; but, certainly requiring a very close look.

Permalink | Report