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(108,903 posts) Thu Oct 25, 2012, 04:36 AM Oct 2012

OREGON SCIENTISTS MAKE EMBRYOS WITH 2 WOMEN, 1 MAN

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_3_PARENT_EMBRYOS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-10-24-21-04-47

In this image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University, a faint white blotch in the tube at right is DNA that has been removed from a human egg, center. The red dot is from a laser used in the procedure. Scientists have successfully transplanted DNA between human eggs and grown them into early embryos. Someday that technique that may let children avoid inheriting certain diseases - and give them genes from another woman besides Mom. (AP Photo/Oregon Health & Science University)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists in Oregon have created embryos with genes from one man and two women, using a provocative technique that could someday be used to prevent babies from inheriting certain rare incurable diseases.

The researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences University said they are not using the embryos to produce children, and it is not clear when or even if this technique will be put to use. But it has already stirred a debate over its risks and ethics in Britain, where scientists did similar work a few years ago.

The British experiments, reported in 2008, led to headlines about the possibility someday of babies with three parents. But that's an overstatement. The DNA from the second woman amounts to less than 1 percent of the embryo's genes, and it isn't the sort that makes a child look like Mom or Dad. The procedure is simply a way of replacing some defective genes that sabotage the normal workings of cells.

The British government is asking for public comment on the technology before it decides whether to allow its use in the future. One concern it cites is whether such DNA alteration could be an early step down a slippery slope toward "designer babies" - ordering up, say, a petite, blue-eyed girl or tall, dark-haired boy.