The Birth Of A Healthy Child

With the advancement of genetic technology parents may soon be giving the option of modifying their unborn children.If this happens I’m sure the x-linked disorders will all be a thing of the past. No more passing down bad genes to your children. Mitochondrial manipulation technologies is a controversial topic many countries have banned its use. Some people feel that you should let mother nature run it’s course with making babies while others feel genetically modified babies are a thing of the future.

In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration has declared mitochondrial replacement as a form of gene therapy (Hayden). When new genetic material is introduced into the gametes (or embryo), it modifies the germline. This genetic modification is not only passed on to the child, but also the subsequent generations (Bredenoord, Pennings, and Wert 670). Techniques such as PNT and MST, makes it possible for children to be born with normal cellular energy production, because healthy donated mtDNA would populate their cells. As a consequence of this intervention, the resulting child’s sperm or egg cells their (‘germline’) would also develop using the donor’s mitochondria (Nuffield Council on Bioethics 57).

In the case of Charlie Gard, an infant diagnosed with infantile-onset encephalomyopathy mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS), there are several moral problems that come into play when talking about what should or should not have been done to treat him. In this paper, I am going to discuss the moral problem of the case and argue why the court systems made the morally correct decision to stop Charlie's treatment after treatment became futile.

The subject of germ-line genetic engineering is a controversial topic. The idea of allowing alternating genes to be passed down to the next generation without fully understanding the risk is disturbing. Despite the opposition, in 2015 England legalized mitochondria transfer, a form of germ-line modification, as treatment for infertility[6]. Mitochondrial transfer is the replacement of the mother cytoplasm with the donor cytoplasm, which contains the mitochondrial genes. The baby has the genetic information of parent plus the donor, “the three parent baby”[7]. Mitochondrial disease involved the malfunction of the mitochondria, which prevent cell to get energy from fat or other energy sources. There is about 1 in 7000 children has mitochondrial

June 12, 2013 Long Island Jewish Hospital 2:20 p.m. a new edition to the Dandeniya family was born. Seth Semika Dandeniya the new born baby looked up and made the cutest smile in the whole entire world. Therefore Chanul Dandeniya and Thirandi Dandeniya (Chanul’s sister) standed

“Critics have pointed to ethical issues including safety concerns and risks to children, genetic and germline engineering concerns, the potential exploitation of the third-parent egg donor, donor anonymity and privacy, and objections to creating babies with three parents, which undermines natural and traditional conceptions of procreation.” 5 Another concern is the determination of legal guardians. From a genetic standpoint, the content being donor contributed is said to be 0.00001 percent. This fraction is a trivial amount, but remains an issue without clear laws in place. 2 Concern is also expressed regarding designer babies. While the initial goal of mitochondrial replacement technology is intended to be therapeutic as it aims to avoid the birth of a child with mitochondrial disease, this technology could be used without therapeutic intent. If genetic modification is allowed, will future research allow for specific traits like intelligence, height, or eye color to be selected by parents? 6

According to Critics (2015), “no clinical trial has taken place to shows conclusively that the treatments are safe in humans” (Matt Chorley, para. 35), because it has only been tested on laboratory animals. Will we allow laws to change without a clear picture of the role mitochondrial donation will play in the transfer of hereditary characteristics? I support the critics as they point out the potentially serious problems that might arise once the procedures are truly carried out. These serious problems will affect the health care system today because there is currently no use of genetic medicine to prevent disease. Genetic modification is not like an organ donating due to the implantation of new genes in embryos. Any implantation prior to egg and sperm producing offspring crosses an ethical line for humans. Yet in my knowledge, an organ that is not matched closely enough can be rejected. While the implantation of new DNA in the egg is unpredictable, our duties should stop the procedure and instead study the effects in a clinical trial or on human prior to allowing

Mitochondria are responsible for producing over 90% of the energy needed to susutain life. When mitochondria fail, less and less energy is generated within our cells, this is mitochondrial disease. This disease can be attributed to mitochondrial mutations. It is estimated that between 10-15 people I every 100,000 people are affected – (these figures have been taken from berg biochemistry).

After the birth of a child, it is the decision from the parents whether or not their child will be vaccinated. Jenn firmly believes that immunizations in children is a must. Being updated on shots is not only important for the children, it is for adults as well. A major immunization for adults that are around an infant is a booster, to aid in protection of the child contracting whooping cough. Without the adult being vaccinated they can easily spread any disease to an infant with an extremely weak immune system. Jenn finds that immunizing children on the other hand is crucial if the parent plans to send their child to a day care or where they are exposed to viral germs. Jenn says that if she were to have a child and decided not to vaccinate them she would not only put my child at risk but someone else’s in a matter if they also chose not to vaccinate. One child could become infected with a germ that could easily spread to another child that is not immune to the effects. If a child has the chicken pox they can easily spread it to another if that child has not already had the illness or the vaccination. It is also required to vaccinate children before they can begin school in the note of spreading unwanted illnesses from child to child. Even before Jenn was allowed to attend school she had to provide an immunization record to ensure she was up to date on all those required such as the meningitis vaccination. Her parents believe that immunizing her

Maternal conditions that determine the path of birth, the maternal age and the reduction in the number of desired children. The gestational age less than 38 weeks of gestation or greater than 40 weeks can increase the chance of having a cesarean birth. Births in gestational ages between 29 and 36 weeks have a probability close to 57% of occurring by cesarean section, compared to 33 % in births with a gestational age between 37 and 42 weeks. Women have a greater proportion of births by cesarean section (43.3%) compared with women who have a history of a previous child (34.9%), or two or more children (27.5%). Among women of middle and high socioeconomic level, there is a strong preference for the surgical delivery, it has been determined

Mitochondria are organelles found in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and play a crucial role in the respiration of the cell (Bandelt et al, 2006). Mitochondria are thought to have originated as free-living bacteria that parasited proto-eukaryotic cells~1.5 billion years ago and have since remained in an endosymbiotic relationship inside eukaryotic cells (Margulis, 1981). The mitochondria preserve remnants of the original bacterial genome coding for key aspects of the mitochondrial machinery, but over the course of evolution, most mitochondrial genes have been transferred to the nucleus. The extent of these nuclear insertions was estimated to represent at least 400,000 base pairs (bp) in the human genome (Qu, Ma, & Li, 2008). The number of

Modification of an embryo’s DNA is a process almost unprecedented before this century. While in earlier generations the idea of being able to alter a human’s DNA was mostly fictional, today it is a possibility to be a real medical advancement for the human race. The intended use of this medical advancement is strictly for prevention of genetic diseases, disorders, and other mutations present within the DNA. One such example of this is the hopeful prevention of inheritable genetic diseases. An inheritable genetic disease, is a disease only caught by being inherited by the child through the parent’s genetics. Yet with modification of DNA becoming a more realistic possibility, scientist are working to treat children afflicted with such genetic

When a baby is born, there is a six week to six month period where forming a bond with your child is very important. During this period, having both parents present can help the child set a certain routine, and can also help the parents adjust to the new life and lifestyles needed to take care of a newborn child. There is a high value of having both parents by the child’s side at this time. It can make a significant difference in how the child is raised, and how the child feels about their own life. The bond that you create in those six weeks is very important to uphold, and can even make families stronger. Pregnancy is known to be a challenging and joyful condition for majority of men, and even new fathers as well. Governments all around the world support young mothers by providing them paid vacations, or maternity leave from work. Unfortunately, maternity and paternity leave is not paid in the United States. After childbirth, women require as much attention as newborns. This is why men are most needed after birth. Fathers would like to have time to dedicate to their family and especially their new baby. Typically, governments provide men with a short unpaid paternity leave, or even none at all. This is a drawback of national healthcare policies that needs to be eliminated. When you add a new member to a family, there are many bills that need to be paid. Babies are very expensive to have and care for. This is why I think that fathers should receive paid paternity leave.

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Pregnancy for the human female is a period of time that is celebrated in most cultures. However, reaching the point where a pregnancy successfully results in the birth of one or more healthy children can be quite difficult. Wilcox et al. (1988) provided the conservative estimate that thirty-one percent of all pregnancies were unintentionally lost, with twenty-two percent of pregnancies being lost before they were clinically detected using delicate detection of hCG hormone levels. Since the rate of spontaneous to be abortion this high when healthcare is arguably the best it has ever been in all human history, it is worth examining the possibility that spontaneous abortion might carry an evolutionary advantage for humans that doesn’t make sense in a simply modern context.