From "Choosing" to "Creating" the "Better" Human
Mitochondria
While I was on my Lenten blogging sabbatical, Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) recommended that the creation of children with three genetic parents be allowed to move forward. Currently, it is illegal to transfer genetically modified embryos to a woman in Britain. The HFEA blessing will likely be used by lawmakers in the UK to change the law.For those who are not up to speed on the "three-parent" embryo technique, here is a quick primer. This variation of IVF was developed to prevent the inheritance of mitochondrial disease. Not all of our DNA that we inherit is in t...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 2, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
Tribute to our new Holy Father, Man of Faith (and Chemistry)
Yes, I am that geeky that I made this myself. (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - March 14, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Science and Religion Source Type: blogs
BioTalk, Episode 3: Lance Armstrong Cheater or Transhumanism Pioneer?
In BioTalk Episode 3, Chelsea, from Reflections of a Paralytic, and I talk about sport, transhumanism, and what acceptance of performance enhancing drugs may mean for our kids and how they view sports. Check it out. I think it is a conversation worth having. (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - February 26, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Giving Up Blogging for Lent
I have been reading my friend Matt Swaim's book Prayer in the Digital Age. Matt discusses the false sense of urgency that the Internet and social media bring to our lives. He writes:The digital culture demands an answer, and when we finally unplug from it, there is a sense of helplessness and a feeling we've failed somehow, even if we can't put our finger on who or what we've failed. All we know is that there is something out there that we should have done something about five minutes ago.That passage seems to sum up my relationship with the digital over the last year or so. Sometimes the Internet feels to me like a giant ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - February 12, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Biologists in China Create Neural Stem Cells From Urine
Back in the 17th century, Hennig Brand, a German Alchemist, boiled a lot of urine looking for a way to make gold. He instead discovered phosphorus.Today, scientist may have turned urine into a different kind of gold, stem cell gold. Researchers in China have created neural stem cells from the cells found in urine. Continue reading at LifeNews >> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - February 6, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Source Type: blogs
Lance Armstrong: Pioneer or Cheater?
After Lance Armstrong admitted that he cheated with performance enhancing drugs, I was waiting for the transhumanists to claim him as their own. It didn't take long. The title of this Wired piece says it all: "Lance Armstrong should be celebrated as a pioneer in human enhancement."The premise? Sure Armstrong broke the rules, but maybe it is the rules that are wrong and not Armstrong. Maybe we should allow and promote human enhancements in sport so that they will be safer, not just for the athlete, but for us coach-potatoes as well. Continue reading at Creative Minority Report >> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - February 5, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Rights for Non-Human "Persons"
Transhumanism is not just about transforming humanity. Part of the movement seeks to redefine what it means to be a "person" extending personhood rights to any kind of intelligence, artificial or otherwise. (This, of course, means that humans without a sufficient intelligence, determined by elite minds, would not qualify as persons.)Yale is hosting a conference to discuss non-human personhood. It is called The Personhood Beyond the Human conference and the transhumanist group The Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies has the details:Personhood Beyond the HumanDecember 6-8, 2013Yale UniversitySponsors:...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 30, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Ladies, Would You Gestate a Neanderthal Baby?
Last week the world was talking about Harvards George Church who suggested we use Neanderthal DNA to resurrect Neanderthals.From the UKs Daily Mail:Theyre usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species.So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the worlds leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring mans long-extinct close relative back to life.Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago.His scheme is reminiscent...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 29, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
Three-Parent Embryo: Modifying Future Generations
In October of 2012, scientists in Oregon announced they had created a dozen human embryos with the genetic material from two women and one man. While these embryos never made it to a womb, these researchers are hopeful that they will be given federal approval to, as USA Today reports, "test the procedure in women." This, of course, means transferring these genetically modified embryos to mothers willing to gestate them.A few weeks later, in December 2012, scientists from New York proclaimed they have improved upon the technique that created these three-parent embryos and are intent on further developing their bre...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 27, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
The Singularity Film: Will we survive our technology?
This is exciting. A documentary film by Doug Wolens about transhumanism and the singularity with some serious players like Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey De Grey and Bill McKibben. It is called "The Singularity" and it asks right under the title "Will we survive our technology?" I am interested in finding out what the film maker suggests is the answer. Regardless, I applaud Doug Wolens for taking a serious look at what is no longer science fiction and is quickly becoming reality. Wolen writes:Singularity advocates argue that consciousness is just another problem to solve or that it will just happen when a system ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 24, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Choosing Life: The Crisis that Wasn't
As the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade dawns, my friends that have adopted children have been posting pictures on Facebook of their beautiful families and thanking the birth mothers for their courage and sacrifice. These adoptive mothers asked everyone to choose adoption over abortion. As I contemplated praising my friends for telling their story, I remembered I had a story to tell as well. I had forgotten.This month, my husband and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. My oldest daughter turned 17 a few months ago. You do the math.Eighteen years ago, I was staring at two blue lines in the bathroom, and I felt my wor...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 23, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Abortion Source Type: blogs
BioTalk, Episode 2: Three Parent-Embryo and the Brave New United States
Another great episode of BioTalk with my friend Chelsea Zimmerman from Reflections of a Paralytic about the new technique that creates embryos with three-genetic parents and how the lack of any federal regulation is going to lead to the Brave New United States. (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 22, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
Embryonic Stem Cell Technique That Doesnt Harm Embryos is Problematic
It happens almost every time. When I write a piece about embryonic stem cell research, I get an e-mail or comment, sometimes polite, most of the time not, that goes something like this, If you were not such a scientifically-ignorant pro-lifer, you would know that Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) can make embryonic stem cells without harming the embryo at all. I am much smarter than you and now that you are enlightened with this revelation, you can support embryonic stem cell research like I do.Continue reading at LifeNews >> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 17, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Stem cells, Embryonic Source Type: blogs
Embryo Factory: Nobody's Child is the Easiest to Acquire
See the Church was totally wrong when she said that removing sex from procreation would turn procreation into manufacture and the next generation into a commodity. IVF is only for infertile couples desperate to have a child. It will NEVER lead to the buying and selling of human beings.Except that it did. William Saletan has it exactly right in his Slate piece "The Embryo Factory: The business logic of made-to-order babies" about Jennalee Ryan who doesn't sell egg and sperm. She sells made-to-order embryos. Saletan writes:It's temping to label Ryan a madwoman, as many critics have. But that's exactly wrong. Ryan r...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 16, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: IVF Source Type: blogs
Right to Consumer Genetics?
These days it seems we have a "right" to everything except the rights that are actually given to us by our Creator and enumerated in the Constitution. (My latest favorite is the "right to be unlimited." A right for iPhone5 users according to Sprint.) Chelsea Zimmerman over at Reflections of a Paralytic sent me this article from the MIT Technology Review over the Christmas holiday. It says we have a "right to consumer genetics."What exactly is consumer genetics? Well, you can go about getting your genes tested in a couple of ways. Your doctor can order a test for a genetic predisposition for a ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - January 15, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Testing Source Type: blogs
