Genetically-Engineered Humans Have Already Been Born

The earthshaking news appeared in the medical journal 'Human Reproduction' under the impenetrable headline: Mitochondria in Human Offspring Derived From Ooplasmic Transplantation." The media put the story in heavy rotation for one day, then forgot about it. We all forgot about it.

But the fact remains that the world is now populated by dozens of children who were genetically engineered. It still sounds like science fiction, yet its true.

In the first known application of germline gene therapy - in which an individual's genes are changed in a way that can be passed on to offspring - doctors at a reproductive facility in New Jersey announced in March 2001 that nearly 30 healthy babies had been born with DNA from THREE people: dad, mom, and a second woman. Fifteen were the product of the fertility clinic, with the other fifteen or so coming from elsewhere.

The doctors believe that one cause for failure of women to concieve is that their ova contain old mitochondria (mitochondria are the part of the cells that provides energy). These sluggish eggs fail to attach to the uterine wall when fertilized. In order to soup them up, scientists injected them with mitochondria from a younger woman. Since mitochondria contain DNA, the kids have the genetic material of all three parties. The DNA from the 'other woman' can even be passed down along the female line.

The big problem is that no one knows what effects this will have on the children or their progeny. In fact, this substitution of mitochondria hasn't been studied exstensively on animals, never mind homo sapiens. The doctors reported that the kids are healthy, but they neglected to mention something crucial. Although the fertility clinic's technique resulted in fifteen babies, a total of seventeen had been created. One of them had been aborted, and the other miscarried. Why? Both of them had a rare genetic disorder, Turner syndrome, which only strikes females. Ordinarily, just one in 2,500 females is born with this condition, in which one of the Y chromosomes is incomplete or totally missing. Yet two out of these seventeen fetuses had developed it.

If we assume that nine of the fetuses were female (about 50 percent), then two of the nine female fetuses had this rare condition.

Dr. Joseph Cummin, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Western Ontario, says that no further information about these 30 children has appeared in the medical literature or the media. As far as additional children born with two mommies and one daddy, Cummin says that a report out of Norway in 2003 indicated ooplasmic transfer has been used to correct mitochondrial disease. He opines: "It seems that the transplants are still going on, but very, very quietly in a regulatory vacuum perhaps."

www.newscientist.com...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Wow, thanks for this post. I see this subject has also faded from ATS just like it did on the news....my comment here will bump it back up. Just another example of how important topics go unnoticed on ATS.

Scientists are playing God here and getting into something they don't fully understand. I am curious as to how these genetically modified humans grow and end up. Will they even know they were genetically engineered? This is a very scary thing, in my opinion.

its amazing how many 'diamond posts' around here get unnoticed.... another conspiracy maybe? lol

People around here would rather discuss fake
UFO videos I guess. lol.

it's most certainly genetic engineering, it's slightly primitive, though and i honestly doubt anything will become of it.

mitochondrial DNA is very uniform, so this change is very minor. once they start introducing artificial chromosomes or using recombinant techniques, which alther existing genes, not just swap them watch out.

diamond post, well i know the feeling, i've seen more fundamental things fall by the wayside, though.

I wholeheartedly agree. The real scary thing about this is where it leads...

Example:

People used to be able to go from point A to point B at will. Then of course things like fences arived, which in themselves are good things. Then roads for the buggys and whatnot, then sidewalks - hey everyone like sidewalks, that way people wont be getting run over all the time, then theres stoplights, so cars will stop running into each other, then this and that other good thing infinitum. My point is this, you can no longer go from point A to point B anymore, because of these rules and regulations about where to stop, when to stop, how to stop, when to go, how to go etc - im sure you get the point.

***Add that to genetics***

Everyone wants their children to be healthy right? smart? want blue eyes with that? boy or a girl? you decide of course at first. it wont be long once that point is reached, that the decision will no longer be yours.

What if China could dictate what/how of their children? the ramifications alone of just that are too gruesome to even want to contemplate - for the masses, i guess.

slippery slope, sure, i have a morbid faith in human arrogance, though, namely that such pursuit will inevitably fail horribly, which is the good news.

the bad is of course that we are going extinct if GM humans become widespread. when was the last time these utopian ideas ended in a place other than a mass grave? eugenics is as eugenics comes, unimaginative people trying to apply crop breeding to human beings. (now includng gene scrambling, yay)


it ain't working, see

www.idrc.ca...

for a glimpse of the underyling problems of inbreeding in crops. it's an online book, so i'm just including it just in case

Very scary stuff. The comment "in a regulatory vacuum" must be the scariest part of this story as this tells me that the scientists are pretty much free to do as they please in this regard.

You might want to consider that Fertility Clinics are good places that can be used for experimentation without the consent of the parties.

I don't think that the defects in the 2 aborted fetuses was due to/caused by this method in and of itself. It was likely inherent in the DNA material used.

I do not think that this idea of experimentation (with consent) is a bad idea, or that it would get out of hand as some of you are suggesting.
What would more likely happen is that the elites will be taking full advantage of it to make themselves a bigger, smarter and healthier group. The masses will remain the same.unless they have the price.
Hmmm new profit making industry....

Originally posted by OhZone

Hmmm new profit making industry....

Cartman tries to sell fetuses

"I got these primo fetuses. Come on, I wouldn't jerk you around Randy."

reply to post by Mad_Hatter


lmaoooooooooooooooooooooo

Dude that was just waaaaayyyy too funny.
right on man, that just made my day.

Ive been speaking with friends/coworkers and associates about this lately and am very surprised at how very little people seem to know about this. Scary...