Some days I feel like we're actually living in a sci-fy movie or book. I knew about cloning, the hamburger recently grown in a lab, and more. They all seem unnatural in a sense, like we're playing with nature.
The other day I was reading an article on the BBC, which brought attention to a girl with three biological parents.
She has genes from her two parents, but also has mitochondria - considered to be cell's factories - from a third individual. This girl joins between 30 or 50 people in the world who have DNA from three people. She was part of a pioneering infertility treatment the U.S.A. was working on, but was later banned.
Ultimately the research was meant to attempt to eliminate debilitating genetic diseases. I personally do not remember anything about these practices from the past, but now those in the United Kingdom are looking at legalizing a technique similar to that of what occurred in the U.S. This would make the UK the only country to the birth of children with three people's DNA, according to the article.
The girl from the U.S.A. was part of a practice called cytoplasmic transfer, which was created by Dr. Jacques Cohen in the 90s. Other clinics would go on to copy the technique of infusing a woman's cytoplasm to the mother's egg and then fertilizing the egg with the father's sperm.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked doctors to refrain from continuing the practice in 2002 citing safety and ethical concerns.
Now, I'm not overly religious, I go to church when I'm able to and although I'm not sure if I can say for certain that there is a God, I can say that it is compelling how many religions there are in the world and all seem draw parallels to each other.
This kind of procedure I'm sure would have people upset over doctors playing God, but I think on a different scale it is something that goes against what is natural. I understand the desire to eliminate disease and the need to understand our world, but I feel like the world has always had a natural ebb and flow. That despite trying to prolong life and eliminate disease it might be possible the world will somehow take care of itself.
For instance climate change isn't new, it's happened in the past. There have been glacial periods and inter-glacial periods over the years, essentially it's the world going through cycles to keep balance. Humans are terrible at keeping this balance and although I don't deny climate change, I do think it is something that would be happening with or without our help. We may be speeding it up, but I do think it is something that would occur regardless.
The state the world is in today is already seemingly unsustainable and with our scientific practices for ensuring life and prolonging life, it is sometimes a little hard to comprehend when it seems like it is science fiction.
Although this is probably the attitude that humanity has had over the years with different medical breakthroughs; it might take some time for me to really accept it. For younger generations maybe these practices will become the norm, but for right now I find them hard to really grasp. It's weird to think that we're living in a world which was written about years ago as science fiction.
