<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Here we go. Britain is now set to step over the threshold...open the Pandora's box... of genetically altering a human egg at the time of conception. <div><br></div><div>I have been peripherally following the trend toward "designer babies." Major universities in our country have been pursuing research on this area for many years now.</div><div><br></div><div>Britain's move is the next step into a deeper human hubris that is steadily upsetting the balance of life on Earth.</div><div><br></div><div>Deep Breath....Human GMOs have begun.</div><div><br></div><div>Make no mistake....there is big, big money behind this with huge marketing potential that is far beyond the medical condition mentioned in this article below.... for those who can afford it.</div><div><br></div><div>Designer babies here we come.</div><div><br></div><div>Sadly with great concern,</div><div><br></div><div>Baile</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 18px; "><header id="story-header" class="story-header" style="display: block; position: relative; "><div id="story-meta" class="story-meta " style="margin-bottom: 20px; "><h1 itemprop="headline" id="story-heading" class="story-heading" style="font-size: 2.125rem; line-height: 2.375rem; font-weight: 700; font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Britain Set to Approve Technique to Create Babies From 3 People</h1><div id="story-meta-footer" class="story-meta-footer" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); padding-top: 2px; "><p class="byline-dateline" style="margin-top: 4px; margin-right: 45px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; float: left; "><span class="byline" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/stephen_castle/index.html" style="font-size: 0.6875rem; line-height: 0.75rem; font-weight: 700; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; ">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/stephen_castle/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by STEPHEN CASTLE" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="STEPHEN CASTLE" itemprop="name">STEPHEN CASTLE</span></a></span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-02-03" style="font-size: 0.6875rem; line-height: 0.75rem; font-weight: 300; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-left: 12px; ">FEB. 3, 2015</time></p></div></div></header><div id="story-body" class="story-body"><div class="lede-container" style="float: none; clear: none; "><div class="lede-container-ads" style="float: right; clear: right; "><div id="XXL" class="ad xxl-ad marginalia-anchor-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" style="float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-left: 27px; "><a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?ref=todayspaper#story-continues-1" style="position: absolute; 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float: left; clear: left; margin-bottom: 15px; "><a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?ref=todayspaper#story-continues-1" style="position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: -1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-left: -1px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">Continue reading the main story</a><span class="sharetools-label visually-hidden" style="position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: -1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-left: -1px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; ">Share This Page</span></div><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="251" data-total-count="251" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">LONDON — Despite warnings that a new ethical threshold was being crossed, British lawmakers on Tuesday voted to allow the in vitro creation of babies using the DNA of three people, a procedure that could prevent the inheritance of genetic diseases.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="175" data-total-count="426" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">The move would make <a title="More news and information about United Kingdom." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedkingdom/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">Britain</a> the first country to authorize an in vitro fertilization technique that involves altering a human egg or embryo before transferring it to the womb.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="185" data-total-count="611" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">The issue provoked fierce debate, with some opponents likening the procedure to genetic modification and arguing that it would open the way to the creation of so-called designer babies.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="251" data-total-count="862" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 382 to 128 in favor of the move, which still requires final approval from the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament. The House of Lords rarely rejects the decisions of its elected colleagues.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="151" data-total-count="1013" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">The vote came after a number of objections were raised, including the fact that other nations, including the United States, have not taken such a step.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="406" data-total-count="1419" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">Describing the move as “bold” but “considered and informed,” the health minister, Jane Ellison, argued in favor of legalizing the procedure, which is designed to help women with mitochondrial diseases. Defects in the mitochondria — energy-producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus — can result in a range of complications, including <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/muscular-dystrophy/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Muscular dystrophy." class="meta-classifier" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">muscular dystrophy</a> and heart, kidney and liver failure.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="147" data-total-count="1566" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">An opponent of the change, Edward Leigh, a Conservative lawmaker and former minister, said before the vote that it was a “monumental decision.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="227" data-total-count="1793" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">“If we believe that, sadly, given the nature of the human condition, there are these appalling diseases, where do we stop?” he asked, calling for full clinical trials to determine the procedure’s safety and effectiveness.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="257" data-total-count="2050" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">“We will be the first state to authorize this in the world,” Mr. Leigh added. “We will be in a unique position, and we should ask ourselves why no other state — not the European Union, not the U.S., yet — thinks this process is absolutely safe.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="259" data-total-count="2309" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">If it wins final approval, as seems likely, the technique is expected to be used only sparingly, and in the cases of women who have faulty mitochondria. The resulting embryo would have nucleus DNA from the child’s parents but mitochondrial DNA from a donor.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="147" data-total-count="2456" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-3" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">Scientists say that the child would inherit the characteristics of the parent, other than the mitochondrial defect, rather than those of the donor.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="189" data-total-count="2645" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">They also say that the procedure is different from the one used to genetically modify foods, in which individual genes are usually selected to be transferred from one organism into another.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="321" data-total-count="2966" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-4" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">Tuesday’s vote was welcomed by Robert Meadowcroft, chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, who described it <a href="http://www.muscular-dystrophy.org/get_involved/campaigns/campaign_news/8132_mps_vote_in_favour_of_regulations_to_allow_mitochondrial_donation" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">in a statement</a> as a “milestone in giving women an invaluable choice, the choice to become a mother without fear of passing on a lifetime under the shadow of mitochondrial disease to their child.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="345" data-total-count="3311" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">“There are currently no means to treat devastating mitochondrial diseases, which can cause muscle wastage, <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/blindness/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Blindness." class="meta-classifier" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">loss of vision</a>, stroke-like episodes and a premature death,” the statement added. “Preventing inheritance, where possible, remains our only option, and that is why we have invested in and wholly support this pioneering technique.”</p><div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent" style="float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 40px; margin-left: 7px; "><a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?ref=todayspaper#story-continues-5" style="position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: -1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-left: -1px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">Continue reading the main story</a></div><div id="MiddleRightN" class="ad text-ad middle-right-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" style="float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 40px; margin-left: 7px; position: relative; min-width: 300px; min-height: 250px; "><a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/world/europe/britain-nears-approval-of-fertilization-technique-that-combines-dna-of-three-people.html?ref=todayspaper#story-continues-5" style="position: absolute; width: 1px; height: 1px; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: -1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-left: -1px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">Continue reading the main story</a></div><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="389" data-total-count="3700" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">Some groups opposed to the procedure, including Human <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/genetics/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Genetics." class="meta-classifier" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">Genetics</a>Alert, had likened it to genetic modification. “Although food crops, bacteria and animals have been genetically engineered for the last 20 years, there has been a worldwide consensus, embodied in legislation in over 60 countries, that we should not attempt to do the same with human beings,” the group said on its website.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="151" data-total-count="3851" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">“This is because crossing this line would lead inevitably to a future of ‘designer babies’ and a new consumer-driven eugenics,” the group said.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="228" data-total-count="4079" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">The Catholic Church in England and Wales <a href="http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/Home/News/Mitochondrial-Donation2" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">said</a> <a href="http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/Home/News/Mitochondrial-Donation2" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); ">in a statement</a> that it seemed “extraordinary that a license should be sought for a radical new technique affecting future generations without first conducting a clinical trial.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="185" data-total-count="4264" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">“There are also serious ethical objections to this procedure, which involves the destruction of human embryos as part of the process,” Bishop John Sherrington said in the statement.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="238" data-total-count="4502" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; width: 540px; max-width: 540px; ">The Church of England argued that there should be “more time for consultation and research,” while adding that the church did not want to prevent people “from benefiting from a major advance in genetics and assisted reproduction.”</p><footer class="story-footer story-content" style="display: block; margin-left: 135px; width: 540px; margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 45px; "><div class="story-meta"></div></footer></div></span></div><div><br></div></body></html>