Guest Post by Kevin Smith It is well known that the risk of disorders resulting from chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s syndrome, correlates with advancing maternal age. Less widely known is the correlation between the age of fathers and an increased risk of a range of disorders in their resultant offspring, the most prominent of […]
Category: Genetic jiggerypokery
This could get Personal
And so 23andMe has launched in the UK. For those not familiar with it, 23andMe allows individuals to swab themselves and have their genome analysed, at a cost of £125. The company is offering to generate a report covering about a hundred traits, giving information on a range of potentially important to fun things: the list […]
Growing a Kidney Inside a Pig Using your own DNA: The Ethics of ‘Chimera Organs’
Guest post by David Shaw Imagine that you’re in dire need of a new kidney. You’re near the top of the waiting list, but time is running out and you might not be lucky enough to receive a new organ from a deceased or living donor. But another option is now available: scientists could take […]
Multiplex Parenting: in vitro Gametogenesis and the Generations to Come
Guest Post by César Palacios-González, John Harris and Giuseppe Testa; for the full paper, click here. Recent biotechnology breakthroughs suggest that functional human gametes could soon be created in vitro. While the ethical debate on the uses of in vitro generated gametes (IVG) was originally constrained by the fact that they could be derived only from embryonic […]
Genes and Confidentiality: Tricky!*
A couple of weeks ago, the D–ly M–l** asked me to comment on the Personal Genome Project‘s call for 100 000 volunteers who’d be willing to have their DNA sequenced so that it could be correlated with their health records and used as a tool for research. As it happens, my peals of wisdom never made […]
Not in any Way Topical.
I know, I know. I keep banging on about the irrelevance of genetics when it comes to families – about why parenthood isn’t a genetic thing. But, actually, now I think about it – Duchess of Cambridge blah blah baby blah… I wonder what, if any, constitutional implications there’d be if the heir to the […]
Mouse Eggs: A Cool Solution to a First-World Problem?
The news that Japanese researchers have successfully induced skin cells to behave like viable eggs, which have then been fertilised to create a new generation of mice, may well come to be seen as a scientific milestone. And if it’s not that, it’s definitely very, very cool. (The original paper is here.) Though the research […]
Mitochondrial Disease and the HFEA
Readers are probably aware of the consultation that the HFEA launched this week on the use of mitochondrial replacement to prevent certain illnesses. John Harris has a piece on it in The Guardian – and by gosh golly, he’s right*; the article is well worth a quick look. My own ha’p’orth: some of the stuff in the […]