Child with Three Biological Parents
February 9, 2008 3:19 pm ScienceThis week British scientists announced the creation of an embryo with genes from three parents. While most of the genes are from two of the parents, genes from a second mother were inserted. This was done to prevent a possible genetic defect from being passed on by the primary mother.
Curing genetic defects is a short step from outright enhancement. While we are not there, we probably will be within this century. With our increasing knowledge of which genes are responsible for what, I could see a future where parents create their child by selecting characteristics from a gene library. Limiting gene selection to two people would limit choices about the child’s characteristics. Future genetically engineered children could have genes from thousands of parents, or even have genes that are completely artificial.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Reminds me very much of the movie “Gattaca”.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
That’s definitely one of my favorite movies.
April 5th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
[…] We’ve already cloned and genetically engineered animals. Scientists are just waiting for a greenlight, so that they can apply this science to humans. In some ways it’s even a stretch to say they are waiting. We have already cloned human embryos, which would grow up to be clones if we let them. There have also been numerous claims about humans who have already been cloned, but so far these claims have all been pretty sketchy. In the genetic engineering realm, we are already curing genetic diseases. […]