Genetically Modified People???

So, speaking of “everything birth,” the first genetically modified person with the genes from three separate people has actually been born. It’s not really a designer baby as people would jump to believe. It wasn’t modified for super beauty, super smarts, or otherwise super abilities. It was just designed to be able to have the genetic make-up of an infertile woman, despite the damaged mitochondria in her eggs.

They took the mitochondria from another woman’s cells and shoved it inside the infertile eggs and then the egg was functional and grew into a baby with the addition of sperm. The child has three biological parents now, rather than two. The child also has DNA from all three biological parents.

Infertility is an awful hell for a couple hoping to concieve, but leaving out the “this technology could be abused” factor, I still have a hard time jumping on board with genetically modified people. I can’t even get on board with genetically modified corn, but PEOPLE???

We don’t even know what every gene is for yet. We know that a baby can survive and appear healthy now, thanks to this experiment. That’s terribly exciting for the couple. But are those scientists so smart that they know that everything will be fine? What of that new child’s fertility? What of their mitochondria? What future implications will this have on the child?

Maybe nothing. That’s what they thought of genetically modified corn and soybeans afterall. At least only human genes were used in this process though…

I guess the biggest issue I have with this is the idea that it’s OK to experiment on human beings.

Even if you think that life starts right at birth, the subsequent person created through this genetic engineering will be the one to live with any side effects.

Worst case scenerio wouldn’t be that the process didn’t work. Worst case scenerio, in my mind, would be that a child would be born and suffer tremendous disabilities or deformities because a geneticist decided to give it a whirl… with a human being.

How do you feel about this? Where do you draw the line on altering human genetics? How far is too far?