The world's first genetically modified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.
The disclosure that 30 healthy babies
were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked
another furious debate about ethics.
So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three "parents".
Fifteen of the children were born in the
past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the
Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New
Jersey.
The babies were born to women who had
problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into
their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to
conceive.
Genetic fingerprint tests on
two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from
three adults --two women and one man.
The fact that the children have inherited
the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that
they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.
Altering the human germline - in effect
tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned
by the vast majority of the world's scientists.
Geneticists fear that one day this method
could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired
characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.
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