Wednesday, February 04, 2015

The stupid English

MPs vote in favour of 'three-person embryo' law | Science | The Guardian

As I have written before - this is crazy.

The reason it is crazy is not (as some pro-life conservatives in this report claim) because it involves destroying embryos to create a third - I mean, just everyday IVF results in scores of discarded embryos every week and they aren't rioting in the streets about that - but because it is a highly artificial process with very likely subtle and unforeseeable long term health consequences for the babies created.   Just as there already is a higher birth defect rate for "normal" IVF babies - the reasons for which remain unclear - it is reasonable to expect more problems if you are fiddling around with the actual contents of eggs.  

All this for a small number of families who simply want to have their own babies instead of adopting or using donor egg techniques.

The Americans are unwilling to proceed with it - at least until more animal studies are done.   Why are the English so gung-ho about this?


No comments: