May 21 2008 / by Bora
Category: Biotechnology Year: 2008 Month: Feb Rating: 13 Hot
This past Mother’s Day, it occurred to me that the meaning
of parenthood is constantly evolving. While social trends, such as
increasing divorce rates and rising numbers of same-sex marriages
are major contributing factors, science is adding another layer to
the evermore complex meaning of the modern family. A good example
of this stems from the latest developments in genetic manipulation
and assisted reproductive technology.
In a recent report, a British team of researchers at Newcastle
University announced that they have created a
human embryo conceived from three parents, in which the nuclear
DNA is inherited from the mother and the
father but the mitochondrial DNA is
inherited from a third party. The three-parent embryo was created
in an effort to prevent genetic diseases associated with defective
maternal mitochondrial DNA. (cont.)
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