>From MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.com/local/WNBC/196821.asp
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Designer genes Part II: Altering human DNA
New York, Nov. 21 - Imagine a world where diseases could be diagnosed
and cured while a child was still in the womb, or the possibility of choosing
a child’s height, eye color or intellect before birth. The
genetic technology that could make this a reality is closer than one
might think.
NBC4: Designer genes Part I - Genetic dream or nightmare?
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Inara Mahmood is a healthy one-month-old girl. To her parents, Tahseen and Mohammed Mahmood, she is a miracle.
"You've got designer genes, designer hair, designer eyes. That to me is not only frivolous, but it's a dangerous misuse."
The Mahmood’s 7-year-old-son suffers from Cooley’s anemia, an inherited blood disorder that requires frequent transfusions and constant medical care. Both the Mahmood’s carry the genetic trait for Cooley’s, so when Tahseen Mahmood became pregnant again, the couple was terrified.
“It was really very scary because with this is a type of disorder you have to go through all your life if you didn’t know the result, and definitely it’s the child who suffers,” said Tahseen Mahmood.
So the Mahmoods decided to seek the help of genetic counselor Donna Blumenthal at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. According to Blumenthal, “If two parents are carriers, there’s a 25 percent chance with each pregnancy that a baby will have Cooley’s anemia.”
Fortunately, an amniocentesis revealed that the Mahmood’s baby would be all right. In this instance, genetic science acted as an assurance that their baby would be healthy at birth.
But the science of genetic engineering already has progressed beyond simply identifying defective genes. It also can be used to alter them, and that technology could eliminate genetic disease completely.
The technology is part of a revolution in science and medicine called the human genome project. Scientists at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, along with teams around the world, are part of this program where scientists are mapping the 3 billion units of human DNA – the building blocks of life.
Molecular biologist Dick McCombie said, “Most diseases are a combination of environmental and genetic factors, and having this sequence will let us understand these genetic factors much more readily.”
The same technology also could be used to alter a child’s appearance or intellect. The ethical debate surrounding this potential use of genetic science was portrayed in the 1997 movie, Gattaca.
In a scene from the movie, a character describes a checklist of genetic wishes that a parent has demanded for their unborn child – hazel eyes, dark hair and fair skin. The geneticist assures the potential parent that he’s “taken the liberty of eradicating any potentially prejudicial conditions – premature baldness, myopia.”
According to Monsignor William Smith of St. Joseph’s Seminary, “You’ve got designer genes, designer hair, designer eyes. That to me is not only frivolous, but it’s a dangerous misuse. I don’t think it’s therapeutic anymore.”
When Dolly, the cloned sheep, made her first appearance last year, the world was stunned. Not far behind Dolly’s appearance was the even more shocking news that if it was possible to clone a sheep, it also would be within reach to clone a human being.
One of the first proponents of this new science was Harvard-educated embryologist Richard Seed. After Dolly, Seed has upped the stakes in genetic science.
“When we produce a human clone from an adult nucleus, we are literally reprogramming the nucleus from age 40 or 50 back to age 1 day. In other words, you have basically established that there is no known reason why you can’t undergo rejuventation,” said Seed.
What’s more important to congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-New York, is the very real potential for genetic discrimination.
According to Slaughter, “The estimate is that each one of us carries between five and 30 faulty genes, so we’re not talking about another population – we’re talking about ourselves.”
Slaughter has introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives
that would prohibit discrimination based on genetic information. The bill
would help prevent insurance companies from using a patient’s
genetic composition in order to deny them coverage, or to stop an employer
from denying someone a job based on their genetic information.
dan@southeast.net
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