The Big Event

In a good controversy, there is always that one moment that stirred everything up to turn something into said controversy.  In this post, I am going to be discussing the catalyst for the controversy I am researching for my project.  My controversy is about genetic experimentation and DNA transplants on humans.

Jeff Turner.  "Lit Match" 9/7/08 via flickr.  Creative Commons Attribution License.

Genetic engineering as a general topic has always raised controversy over its innate premise of humans “playing god.”  This specific controversy narrows genetic engineering down to the altering of the DNA of human embryos through a process known as mitochondrial replacement.  Governments have debated over whether or not to allow their scientists to research this human DNA experimentation, and the United States’ debate has been highly relevant as of late. 

After holding a meeting in 2015 about the ethics of mitochondrial replacement, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assemble a team to address the question of whether or not it is ethical to perform mitochondrial replacement experiments on humans.

The specific moment that has resurged the debate of genetic experimentation was when the panel from the Nation Academies responded to the FDA’s request and published a lengthy report detailing the ethical, social, and policy issues that mitochondrial replacement raises.  This highly qualified panel concluded it is indeed ethical to allow scientists to perform such DNA transplants on humans because of the beneficial results that mitochondria replacement can have on young children whose natural genes would have given them a poor life.

The publication of this report has brought genetic engineering into the spotlight, and has put the pressure on the FDA and the United States Congress to permit the research/experiments or not.  The controversy will continue up to and after the FDA comes out with a decision regarding this genetic experimentation.