NPR—A Potential But Controversial Fix For Genetic Disease

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Scientists in Oregon have developed a technique that could be used to prevent certain genetic diseases. They've demonstrated it in monkeys and are anxious to try it in people. The technique raises ethical questions, however, because it makes a permanent genetic change not just in an individual, but in all generations that follow.

The technique involves an unusual set of genes in the human body. Most of our genes are in our chromosomes, which are in the cell's inner sanctum, the nucleus. But 37 human genes are outside the nucleus. They are contained in tiny bodies called mitochondria, which float around in our cells. Mitochondria are the mini power plants for our cells. And mutations in the genes inside mitochondria can cause disease.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University are trying to figure out how to treat this class of rare genetic diseases. They've been working with the eggs of rhesus monkeys. If you fix a genetic problem in an egg, you will fix it in all the cells the egg grows into — the whole animal.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Science & Technology • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

2 Comments
Posted August 27, 2009 at 4:09 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Br. Michael wrote:

Inappropriate comment deleted by elf.

August 27, 6:17 pm | [comment link]
2. Undergroundpewster wrote:

I heard this report this morning and the problems keep growing in my mind. My first thought was that the genie is out of the bottle and nothing will stop the mad scientists from creating new life. Once the genetic code was cracked, the temptation of building a complete human one amino acid at a time will inevitably result in all kinds of “experiments.”

Most worrisome is the attitude of the researcher:

It will take four or five years before the scientists know whether they are able to reproduce successfully. It could take even longer to notice any long-term health effects. But Mitalipov says he doesn’t want to wait that long — he wants to try the technique in people.


To do that, he would need to convince the Food and Drug Administration that the technique is safe. And he will also have to deal with a key ethical issue. Art Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania says the issue is that modifying the genes in an egg doesn’t merely affect one individual — the modification ends up in the eggs of the individuals, too.


“It goes on forever, because it’s passed on from generation to generation,” Caplan says.


This kind of manipulation is called “germ line” therapy, and it’s been considered taboo. For one thing, if there are health risks, they will affect multiple generations. For another, it could open the door to genetically engineering a lineage of people with supposedly superior qualities. This is called eugenics, and many people find that repugnant. 

August 27, 10:42 pm | [comment link]
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