Interesting case developing in Australia right now.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,3487370%255E27
02,00.html
A couple carrying a deleterious allele had a kid suffering a gruesome
condition, Fanconi's anemia. He can possibly be saved with stem cells from
a histocompatible source; the plausible candidate is placental cord stem
cells from a new sibling. So the parents are petitioning for the right to
use IVF technology to prepare a number of in vitro blastocytes, screen them
to remove those with the genetical anomaly, then implant a healthy one. In
due course, they'll have another child spared the disorder, and his or her
cord blood will provide the cure for the existing dying child.
TV news reports of this issue are speaking of the proposal as `genetic
engineering' (rather than, say, screening for healthy embryos). Monash's Dr
Alan Trounson is wearily for it, but you can see the poor fellow tiring
under the ceaseless barrage. It doesn't seem to occur to the nitwits that
*no* alterations are being proposed in the new baby's genome.
Naturally the reporters all babble about `playing god' and `feeling revolted'.
I think this mischievous, or maybe just ignorant, misuse of words needs to
be combatted every time it arises. Of course, maybe it's better to let it
run unchecked... because then by the time people *are* doing real genetic
engineering, the boy will have cried wolf so often everyone will be
heartily sick of the silly noise.
Damien Broderick
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