The Future (86 page)
Authors: Al Gore
357
produce more red blood cells
“Fairly Safe,”
Economist
, July 31, 2008.
358
ruling without genetic testing of the athlete’s relatives
“Genetically Modified Olympians?,”
Economist
.
359
called myostatin that regulates the building of muscles
Aaron Saenz, “Super Strength Substance (Myostatin) Closer to Human Trials,” Singularity Hub, December 8, 2009.
360
“sperm-making biological machine”
“Artificial Testicle, World’s First to Make Sperm, Under Development by California Scientists,”
Huffington Post
, January 19, 2012,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/19/artificial-testicle_n_1215964.html
.
361
the first so-called test tube baby in 1978, Louise Brown
Donna Bowater, “Lesley Brown, Mother of First Test Tube Baby Louise Brown, Dies Aged 64,”
Telegraph
, June 21, 2012.
362
debate about the ethics and propriety of the procedure
Robert Bailey, “The Case for Enhancing People,”
New Atlantis
, June 20, 2012.
363
diminish parental love and weaken generational ties
Ibid.
364
“People want children”
Fiona Macrae, “Death of the Father: British Scientists Discover How to Turn Women’s Bone Marrow into Sperm,”
Daily Mail
, January 31, 2008.
365
born to infertile people wanting children
Jeanna Bryner, “5 Million Babies Born from IVF, Other Reproductive Technologies,”
Live Science
, July 3, 2012.
366
I saw this pattern repeated many times
See, for example: Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight and the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, “Commercialization of Academic Biomedical Research,” June 8–9, 1981; Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, “Genetic Screening and the Handling of High-Risk Groups in the Workplace,” October 14–15, 1981.
367
Dr. Christiaan Barnard
Lawrence K. Altman, “Christiaan Barnard, 78, Surgeon for First Heart Transplant, Dies,”
New York Times
, September 3, 2001.
368
“My God, it’s working!”
Personal conversation with author.
369
preimplantation genetic diagnosis
“Saviour Siblings—the Controversy and the Technique,”
Telegraph
, May 6, 2011.
370
“savior sibling”
Ibid.
371
who can serve as an organ
Stephen Wilkinson, “ ‘Saviour Siblings’ as Organ Donors,” Sveriges Yngre Läkares Förening (Swedish junior doctors’ association), November 2, 2012,
http://www.slf.se/SYLF/Moderna-lakare/Artiklar/Nummer-2-2012/Saviour-Siblings-as-Organ-Donors/
.
372
tissue
Robert Sparrow and David Cram, “Saviour Embryos? Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis as a Therapeutic Technology,” Reproductive BioMedicine Online, May 15, 2010,
http://www.ivf.net/ivf/saviour-embryos-preimplantation-genetic-diagnosis-as-a-therapeutic-technology-o5043.html
.
373
bone marrow
Josephine Marcotty, “ ‘Savior Sibling’ Raises a Decade of Life-and-Death Questions,”
Star Tribune
, September 22, 2010.
374
or umbilical cord stem cell donor
“Saviour Siblings—the Controversy and the Technique,”
Telegraph
.
375
the instrumental purpose of such conceptions devalues the child
Stephen Wilkinson,
Choosing Tomorrow’s Children: The Ethics of Selective Reproduction
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
376
important cure for the first with the assistance of the second
K. Devolder, “Preimplantation HLA Typing: Having Children to Save Our Loved Ones,”
Journal of Medical Ethics
31 (January 2005): 582–86.
377
“three-parent babies”
David Derbyshire, “Babies with THREE Parents and Free of Genetic Disease Could Soon Be Born Using Controversial IVF Technique,”
Daily Mail
, March 12, 2011.
378
genetic modification is one that will affect
James Gallagher, “Three-Person IVF ‘Is Ethical’ to Treat Mitochondrial Disease,” BBC, June 11, 2012,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18393682
.
379
be left to the pregnant woman herself, at least in the earlier stages of the pregnancy
World Public Opinion, “World Publics Reject Criminal Penalties for Abortion,” June 18, 2008,
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btjusticehuman_rightsra/492.php
.
380
that are designed to identify the gender of the embryo
Rachel Rickard Straus, “To Ensure Prized Baby Boy, Indians Flock to Bangkok,”
Times of India
, December 27, 2010.
381
abortion of 500,000 female fetuses each year
Madeleine Bunting, “India’s Missing Women,”
Guardian
, July 22, 2011.
382
better enforce the prohibition against the sex selection of children
“Delhi Govt to Crack Down on Sex-Selection Tests,”
Times of India
, January 5, 2012.
383
identification procedures in India utilize ultrasound machines
Bunting, “India’s Missing Women.”
384
Some couples from India
Straus, “To Ensure Prized Baby Boy, Indians Flock to Bangkok.”
385
blood samples taken from pregnant mothers
“Baby Sex ID Test Won’t Be Sold in China or India Due to Fears of ‘Gender Selection,’ ” Associated Press, August 10, 2011.
386
sample from the pregnant woman and a saliva sample from the father
Andrew Pollack, “DNA Blueprint for Fetus Built Using Tests of Parents,”
New York Times
, June 6, 2012.
387
an estimated $20,000 to $50,000 for one fetal genome
Ibid.
388
last year, the cost was $200,000 per test
Mara Hvistendahl, “Will Gattaca Come True?,”
Slate
, April 27, 2012.
389
likely to continue falling very quickly
Ibid.
390
widely available within two years for an estimated $3,000
Stephanie M. Lee, “New Stanford Fetal DNA Test Adds to Ethical Issues,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, July 26, 2012.
391
serious disorders that might be treated through early detection
Drew Halley, “Revolution In Newborn Screening Saves Newborn Lives,” Singularity Hub, March 10, 2009.
392
are terminating their pregnancies
Ross Douthat, “Eugenics, Past and Future,”
New York Times
, June 9, 2012.
393
“sophisticated methods of eugenic selection”
Leroi, “The Future of Neo-Eugenics.”
394
embryos for such traits as hair
Hvistendahl, “Will Gattaca Come True?”; Kleiner, “Designer Babies.”
395
and eye color
Kleiner, “Designer Babies.”
396
skin complexion
Ibid.
397
“98.1 percent of death-row inmates do”
David Eagleman, “The Brain on Trial,”
Atlantic
, July/August 2011.
398
yet another round of difficult ethical choices
Leroi, “The Future of Neo-Eugenics.”
399
markers associated with hundreds of diseases before implantation
Drew Halley, “Prenatal Screening Could Eradicate Genetic Disease, Replace Natural Conception,” Singularity Hub, July 21, 2009.
400
preserved for potential later implantation
Denise Grady, “Parents Torn over the Fate of Frozen Embryos,”
New York Times
, December 4, 2008.
401
women who undergo the in vitro fertilization procedure
Ibid.; Laura Bell, “What Happens to Extra Embryos After IVF?,” CNN, September 1, 2009,
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-09-01/health/extra.ivf.embryos_1_embryos-fertility-patients-fertility-clinics?_s=PM:HEALTH
.
402
to improve the odds that one will survive
Tiffany Sharples, “IVF Study: Two Embryos No Better Than One,”
Time
, March 30, 2009.
403
in vitro fertilization than in the general population
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Contribution of Assisted Reproductive Technology and Ovulation-Inducing Drugs to Triplet and Higher-Order Multiple Births—United States, 1980–1997,”
MMWR
, June 23, 2000.
404
The United Kingdom has set a legal limit on the number of embryos
Sarah Boseley, “IVF Clinics Told to Limit Embryo Implants to Curb Multiple Births,”
Guardian
, January 6, 2004.
405
Auxogyn, is using digital imaging
Reproductive Science Center, “Auxogyn,”
http://rscbayarea.com/for-physicians/auxogyn
.
406
select the embryo that is most likely to develop
Yahoo Finance News, “Auxogyn and Hewitt Fertility Center Announce First Availability of New Non-Invasive Early Embryo Viability Assessment (Eeva) Test in the European Union,” September 17, 2012,
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/auxogyn-hewitt-fertility-center-announce-060000428.html
.
407
to allow the pregnant woman to control the choice on abortion
Leroi, “The Future of Neo-Eugenics.”
408
right to require a pregnant woman to have an abortion
Ibid.
409
so significant that they justify such experiments
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “Stem Cell Research Around the World,” July 17, 2012,
http://www.pewforum.org/Science-and-Bioethics/Stem-Cell-Research-Around-the-World.aspx
.
410
Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University
Alok Jha, “Look, No Embryos! The Future of Ethical Stem Cells,”
Guardian
, March 12, 2011.
411
was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Nicholas Wade, “Cloning and Stem Cell Work Earns Nobel,”
New York Times
, October 8, 2012.
412
unique qualities and potential that justify their continued use
Andrew Pollack, “Setback for New Stem Cell Treatment,”
New York Times
, May 13, 2011.
413
restore some vision to mice with an inherited retinal disease
Sarah Boseley, “Medical Marvels: Drugs Treat Symptoms. Stem Cells Can Cure You. One Day Soon, They May Even Stop Us Ageing,”
Guardian
, January 29, 2009.
414
forms of blindness in humans may soon be treatable
Fergus Walsh, “ ‘Blind’ Mice Eyesight Treated with Transplanted Cells,” BBC, April 18, 2012,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17748165
.
415
rebuild nerves in the ears of gerbils and restore their hearing
James Gallagher, “Deaf Gerbils ‘Hear Again’ After Stem Cell Cure,” BBC, September 12, 2010.
416
sperm when transplanted into the testicles of mice that were infertile
Nick Collins, “Stem Cells Used to Make Artificial Sperm,”
Telegraph
, August 4, 2011.
417
though the offspring had genetic defects
Roxanne Khamsi, “Bone Stem Cells Turned into Primitive Sperm Cells,”
New Scientist
, April 13, 2007.
418
for infertile men to have biological children
Collins, “Stem Cells Used to Make Artificial Sperm.”
419
lesbian couples to have children that are genetically and biologically their own
Macrae, “Death of the Father.”
420
increase human lifespans by multiple centuries
Aubrey de Grey, “ ‘We Will Be Able to Live to 1,000,’ ” BBC, December 3, 2004,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4003063.stm
.
421
25 percent is more likely
Gary Taubes, “The Timeless and Trendy Effort to Find—or Create—the Fountain of Youth,”
Discover Magazine
, February 7, 2011.
422
According to most experts, evolutionary theory
Nir Barzilai et al., “The Place of Genetics in Ageing Research,”
Nature Reviews Genetics
13 (August 2012): 589–94.
423
numerous studies in human
James W. Curtsinger, “Genes, Aging, and Prospects for Extended Life Span,”
Minnesota Medicine
, October 2007.
424
and animal genetics
Ibid.
425
roughly three quarters to the aging process
Barzilai et al., “The Place of Genetics in Ageing Research.”
426
somewhere between 20 and 30 percent
Ibid.
427
extreme caloric restriction extends the lives of rodents dramatically
Taubes, “The Timeless and Trendy Effort to Find—or Create—the Fountain of Youth.”
428
adjustment has the same effect on longevity in humans
Gina Kolata, “Severe Diet Doesn’t Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys,”
New York Times
, August 30, 2012.
429
rhesus monkeys do
not
live longer with severe caloric restrictions
Ibid.