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First Baby Born Free of Cancer Gene

Posted by
January 12, 2009
BRCA1
BRCA-1 gene (Breast Cancer Gene)

Genetic tinkering is a very hot-button issue. People talk about ‘designer babies’, wondering where anyone would draw the line and all the things that can go wrong.  It’s a scary thought, messing with our building blocks.  Well, the first baby whose ‘building blocks’  were tinkered with has been born- immune to breast cancer.

“She is a beautiful, healthy baby girl,” the child’s mother told UK’s The Sunday Times. “She has 10 fingers and 10 toes. She’s 100% healthy.”

The father’s family has three generations of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in their 20s.

But prior to conception, doctors used the process of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to screen for the altered BRCA1 gene, which would have meant the girl had an 80 percent chance of developing the disease.

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) involves taking a cell from an embryo at the eight-cell stage of development, when it is around three-days old, and testing it.

Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes to continue the pregnancy, and discard any whose genetic profile points to future problems.

Link to full source.

Now, I’ll be honest I think this is amazing. If the whole of the ‘genetics game’ has the ability to reduce suffering for everyone I think it has wonderful potential.

So I would like to know something, what are your thoughts on tinkering with genetics?  Should people be doing this and having babies ‘tinkered’ with?

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