Back in September of last year, the Government launched a consultation process asking the public to give their views on the ethics of what has been termed '3 Person IVF'. At the time, I wrote a piece on the subject and commented in particular on the manner in which the consultation was being handled. Unsurprisingly, the Government carried on regardless of my views and it has now been reported that draft regulations that will allow the procedure to be introduced will be later in the year.
While I have no difficulty with the prevention of disease, this is surely a step too far. It is, in effect, genetic modification of human beings and will result in the creation of children who have 3 parents; do we really want this ?
Once again, we're being told that 'experts' are in favour of this approach but who are these 'experts' and what vested interests do they have ? When the same 'experts' tell us that we might be able to eliminate other genetic diseases by using material from 4 or 5 'parents', will we be forced down that road too ? Will children produced from these Frankenstein experiments have any allegiance to any of their assorted 'parents' or will they, perhaps, be grown in artificial wombs, thus releasing the 'parents' from having any involvement beyond the donation of cell samples ?
This may seem far-fetched but this is how some scientists, and all politicians, work; little by little they chip away until what seemed impossible is everyday. In itself, that is not always a bad thing but when they're messing around with the future of humanity it's another matter. Genetic modification of plants has many potential dangers that have not been explained and could come back to bite us; genetic modification of ourselves has dangers of which we cannot begin to comprehend and we allow the Dr Frankensteins of this world to proceed at our serious peril.
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