The dream team is back!
In the latest episode of BioTalk, Rebecca Taylor and I give an update on “three-parent IVF” (aka “midochondrial donation or replacement”) and genetic engineering, what it means for our human future and what you can do about it.
Or, if you prefer, you can listen to audio only:
There is a very real possibility that the United States may follow the UK’s lead here. Since recording this episode, I found out that the FDA is once again revisiting their policy on three-parent IVF here in the States. They have asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a consensus committee to evaluate the technology.
As part of their evaluation, the IOM Consensus Committee is holding open meetings for public comment on March 31, April 1 (registration deadline for those meetings is today) and May 19.
If you are in the DC area, please consider attending and making your voice heard! If you are unable to attend, you can submit feedback to the committee here by clicking on “Provide FEEDBACK on this project” or you can email MitoEthics@nas.edu. That’s what I plan on doing; I hope you will join me (Rebecca has posted a sample letter that you can use).
Let’s not sit idly by while the Brave New World advances. This technology is still new enough that we can influence public opinion — if we act now. If not, then it could take generations more to reverse what has been done.
Please let them know how you feel about the genetic modification of future generations.
One Comment on “BioTalk11: GMO People — Make Your Voice Heard!”
To be clear on one matter mentioned in the video, the reference to the scientist from Oregon who now wishes to apply this technology to older infertile women, and it was stated in the video the goal in the UK was to address preventing Mitochondrial disease is a not in the correct sequence in the timeline of this unfolding agenda. In truth, the gentleman from Oregon has been a this for many years, and has always tried to promote this technique as IVF in older women. He promoted it in the UK as a means to address mitochondrial diseases, which was basically an incidental finding from his initial work, after having his work shut down here in the U.S. Many view this as covert effort to gain cultural and social acceptance before beginning it back to the U.S. to be used in older women. Having said that though, Dame Davies, Chief Medical Officer for the UK, has repeating said this technology ought not be used in older women as a form of IVF, as their is too high of chromosomal defects/damage in older women’s eggs (in the nucleus, which is what is getting transferred).