Designer Babies & the Government

1. Designer Babies & the Government FIB Lecture 5

2. Agenda today • What is meant by ‘designer baby’ • Current understanding • Future capabilities • Abuse of knowledge & technology • Germline vs Non-germline Manipulation • Ownership issues

3. What are designer babies? • Lets start with the natural condition first • To have a baby naturally we need two parents of opposite sex • Woman & • Man • The woman's egg supplies one set of chromosomes and that of the man the other • Egg contains 23 chromosomes - one of each size • Sperm contains 23 chromosomes - one of each size • Once fertilized the embryo has all the genetic information it needs • and it begins to grow and develop into a baby

4. Human chromosomes from a white blood cell Each is very important as it carries information Total = 46 Two of each = 23 pairs Karyotype

5. One sperm is permitted to fertilize one egg!

7. What are designer babies? • The way the gametes (egg and sperm) are generated results in a random sampling of the parents genes. • Suppose the father has blue eyes. He may carry a blue eye gene on one chromosome and a green eye gene on the other. • The sperm will have a random 50:50 chance of getting the blue gene, since there is room to fit just one of the two genes. • The same will apply for all the other 20,000 or so genes which are believed to make humans. • The exact same thing will take place in the generation of the mothers egg.

8. Outside =Blue Eyes Inside = blue eye gene blue eye gene Outside = Brown Eyes Inside = brown eye gene blue eye gene They can have kids with either BROWN EYES or BLUE EYES Calculator

9. What are designer babies? • So the child is a random union of the potential gene combinations of the father and that of the mother. • If neither parent carries the blue eye gene (i.e. each carries just the genes for brown eyes), then the baby cannot have blue eyes. • *unless a rare mutation event occurs which forms the blue gene • NATURE can only mix and match just what the parents have to offer. And here lies the problem! • My wife and I wanted a child with green eyes!!!!!!

10. TOO BAD, MATE! Should have married a girl with just green eyes running in her family, and even then………………………

11. Hang on a sec…. We may have something for you! WAIT HERE PLEASE

12. Reproductive Research • Advanced reproductive technologies allow parents and doctors to screen embryos for genetic disorders and select healthy embryos. • Take some tissue from the baby or its immediate environment and perform genetic tests • This is the logic behind developing these technologies

13. Abuse! • The fear is that in the future we may be able to use genetic technologies to modify embryos and choose desirable or cosmetic characteristics. • Designer babies is a term used by journalists to describe this frightening scenario. • It is not a term used by scientists.

14. IVF • Advanced reproductive techniques involve using InVitro Fertilisation (IVF) to fertilize eggs with sperm • in 'test-tubes' • outside the mother's body in a laboratory. • These techniques reduce the chance that a child will be born with a genetic disorder.

15. At the moment it is only legally possible to carry out two types of advanced reproductive technologies on humans. • Choosing the type of sperm that will fertilize an egg: this is used to determine the sex and the genes of the baby. • Screening embryos for a genetic disease: only selected embryos are implanted back into the mother's womb. This is called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD).

16. Here’s a small problem • As we noted the degree to which one can manipulate the genome of the future child is limited by the potential of the parents genes • If you have no genes for blue eyes between the parents, then you cannot select for a baby to have blue eyes • …or can you?

17. Brave new World! • If someone with enough will and resources really wanted to have a child with blue eyes - as athletic as David Beckham - they could in the future. • We are developing technologies to swap pieces of DNA. • Blue genes into the egg & brown genes out • The recent sequencing of the entire human genome is providing us with knowledge of the makeup of genes Or will the laws set by the government outlaw such manipulations.

18. Watch this video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9ep4B9Hw0

19. Germ Line Therapy • In the future we may be able to "cure" genetic diseases in embryos by replacing faulty sections of DNA with healthy DNA. • This is called germ line therapy and is carried out on an egg, sperm or a tiny fertilized embryo. • Such therapy has successfully been done on animal embryos, • but at present it is illegal to do this in humans.

20. Future Potential • Within a decade or two, it may be possible to screen kids almost before conception for an enormous range of attributes, such as • how tall they're likely to be • what body type they will have • their hair and eye color • what sorts of illnesses they will be naturally resistant to • and even, conceivably, their IQ and personality type.

21. Baby to Order • One can imagine “baby kiosks” where one visits when one wants a baby • Here you may design your child from an ‘a-la-cart’ menu. • In a society used to cosmetic surgery and psychopharmacology, this is not a big step!

22. Big Brother 9 tonight on CBS • Laws tend to be influenced by • public opinion • the makeup of the government • and lobbyists • Where are the lines drawn? • Who formulates these guidelines? • What happens if you break them? • Who will be able to afford it? The poor?

23. Legal ownership of DNA info • Your DNA so you own it, right! • In the movie today we will investigate the legal issues as to who owns the information carried by your DNA…

24. Video Questions - • Who won the race to sequence the human genome? And by how much? • Who is Craig Venter? What does his company own? • Why are the indigenous peoples upset? What was taken from them? • Why is the country of Iceland mentioned? • What did DeCode Genetics get from the Icelandic government? • How much does a typical drug cost to develop?

25. Group questions • Would you like to have a say in the genetic make up of your children? Why and why not? • What are some of the dangers of interfering with Mother Nature? • Should the government and/or companies have a say in your decisions? • What about your health insurance company - should they be permitted to have a say in the genetic makeup of your future children? • Where would you draw the line with respect to engineering children?