"The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.  Fifteen of the children were born as a result of one experimental program at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.

The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilized in an attempt to enable them to conceive.

Genetic fingerprint tests on two 'one year-old' children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults - two women and one man."

Today, these children are in their early teens, and while the original study claims that this was 'the first case of human germ line genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children',  later reports put such claims of absolute success in dispute. Still, back in 2001, the authors seemed to think they had it all under control, stating:

It's relevant to understand that these children have inherited extra genes - that of TWO women and one man - and will be able to pass this extra set of genetic traits to their own offspring. One of the most shocking considerations here is that this was done - repeatedly - even though no one knew what the ramifications of having the genetic traits of three parents might be for the individual, or for their subsequent offspring. Based on what I've learned about the genetic engineering of plants, I'm inclined to say the ramifications could potentially be vast, dire, and completely unexpected.

As a general broad-stroke rule, it seems few scientists, fond of gene-tinkering, have a well-rounded or holistic view of living organisms, opting instead to view the human body as a machine. And as demonstrated with the multi-varied problems that have arisen from genetically engineered foods - from the development of super weeds and super pests, to the creation of a never-before-seen organism now linked to miscarriage and infertility - such a view is bound to lead you to the wrong conclusions . . .

As it turns out, this type of genetic modification, called cytoplasmic transfer, is actually a hot topic among geneticists, but it's rarely published or discussed in the lay press . . .  if at all as evidenced by my own surprise when reading this decade-old piece of news.  Many follow-up reports continue to tout the high success of this method of treating infertility. But some, including a book put out by Cambridge Press, warns of the dangers and risks of this procedure.  

A frank follow-up of ooplasmic transplantation pregnancies and infants reports that two out of 17 fetuses had an abnormal 45, XO karyotype.

The US FDA appears to have begun looking at the ethics of ooplasmic transplantation, and in one 'PowerPoint'  presentation, it  was illustrated that an 18-month-old child, born from this procedure, has been diagnosed with autism (PDD), and that the incidence of chromosomal anomalies is known to be higher in children born from the procedure than the rate of major congenital abnormalities observed in the natural population. So it didn't take long - less than two years for reports of unpredictable outcomes to crop up.  I am not surprised.  It's somewhat disconcerting that so much of this research is taking place without open discussion about the ethical questions associated with it.

The document also states that lack of testing and long-term follow-up of the children born from the procedure so far is a significant shortcoming, making evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of the technique very difficult. The genetic modification of humans appears to have been running alongside the genetic engineering of plants, being just a few years behind in terms of the technology being unleashed, and the lack of proper evaluation of health effects is apparently on par as well, which is to say near non-existent.

Can they create 'patent able' humans? Perhaps . . .

Another horrific side effect that has nothing to do with health per se, is the potential that making this procedure widely available may trigger a ‘patent’ war; meaning these genetically modified humans could become patent able property.

Sound crazy?

You bet!  But it's not outside the realm of possibility. The world is already embroiled in discussions about which genetically engineered life forms can and cannot be patented and biotech companies have secured patents on everything from genetically modified seeds to engineered animals of various kinds. Even human genes have already been patented!

As explained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

"The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants patents on human genes, which means that the patent holders own the exclusive rights to those genetic sequences, their usage, and their chemical composition. Anyone who makes or uses a patented gene without permission of the patent holder – whether it be for commercial or noncommercial purposes – is committing patent infringement and can be sued by the patent holder for such infringement. Gene patents, like other patents, are granted for 20 years."

A 2005 study found that 4,382 of the 23,688 human genes in the National Center for Biotechnology Information's gene database are explicitly claimed as intellectual property. This means that nearly 20% of human genes are patented. In addition to the BRCA genes, genes associated with numerous diseases, both common and rare, are patented, including  Alzheimer's disease, asthma, some forms of colon cancer, Canavan disease, hemochromatosis, some forms of muscular dystrophy, Long QT Syndrome, and many others.

If this sounds outrageous, illegal, and nonsensical, it's because it's all of those things. The ACLU claims to be engaged in a noble lawsuit against the US Patent and Trademark Office to stop the practice of issuing patents that are contrary to the law, which states only inventions can be patented - not naturally occurring parts of the human body. Still, the precedent has been clearly set. So what's to stop a company from eventually claiming patent rights on an entire individual?  Is human cloning next?

The doctor continues:

But that's clearly not the end of the line in terms of where this technology might lead, if it hasn't already:

"Jacques Cohen, a brilliant, but controversial scientist, pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies," 'Mail Online' states. "He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab. Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using  IVF."

Last year (2000), Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children - a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community.  "It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students," he said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three' individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.

That was then - 12 years ago. One can only guess what might have transpired in laboratories such as that of Professor Cohen since then.

 Unfortunately, Dr. Mercola, cloning is a reality at present and has been for many years.  One has to only avail himself of information on YouTube and  view the video presentations on 'cloning' - (subjects are mostly movie stars and presidents) - in recent and past years.  Also, view some of the grotesque pictures of human/animal subjects our insane and evil scientific/medical organizations have endorsed and  engaged in.  And while you're  at it, access the many links on Google showing the areas of research and development our own military research organization, DARPA, is involved with, funded by our government and paid for with your tax dollars.

Are People Destined to Become the Greatest Design Project Of The Century?

The 1970s TV show 'The Six Million Dollar Man' always opened with the back story: Steve Austin, astronaut, crashes his space shuttle and barely survives. His superiors decide to ‘rebuild’ him . . . only they don’t want him back to his old self again. That would be a waste of a good military experiment. Instead, they’ll rebuild him ‘better than he was before ’(we then see a sequence of the actor Lee Majors running in fast-forward). 

There, in a nutshell, is the dilemma at the heart of 'Superhuman', an exhibition that opens at London’s Welcome Collection on July 19th - to be ourselves, or better? At the entrance, a statue of winged *** Icarus reminds us that we have always aspired to feats that our bodies couldn’t deliver, and serves as a cautionary tale about the hubris we invoke when we do. So where does the human end and the superhuman -  or supra-human -  begin?

VOCABULARY: 

*** Icarus - Gk. myth:  The son of Daedalus, who, in escaping from Crete on artificial wings made for him by his father, flew so close to the Sun that the wax which with his wings were fastened melted, and he fell into the Aegean Sea. 

ooplasmic:  Ooplasmic transfer is an experimental fertility technique that involves injecting a small amount of ooplasm from eggs of fertile women into eggs of women whose fertility is compromised. The modified egg is then fertilized with sperm and implanted into the uterus of the woman attempting to achieve pregnancy. Children born from this procedure have been reported to possess cytoplasmic organelles called mitochondria from both their biological mother and the ooplasmic donor, a condition referred to as mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Because mitochondria carry their own sets of genes that are passed on to succeeding generations, the mixing of parent and cytoplasmic donor mitochondria might be considered to be a form of germline modification. However, the technique does not involve modification of particular genes and could not be used as part of any procedure to create 'designer babies'.

Crazed scientists all over the globe are ‘playing god’ with the very building blocks of life. Today, thanks to extraordinary advances in the field of genetic modification, scientists are now able to do things that were once unthinkable. Part human/part animal hybrid monsters are being created by scientists all over the planet and it is all perfectly legal. Scientists justify mixing the DNA of humans and animals by claiming that it will help them ‘cure diseases’ and ‘feed the world‘, but the reality is that all of this genetic modification is a tremendous threat to the human race. It is only a matter of time before humans start allowing themselves to be genetically-modified in order to fight illness or to enhance their abilities. 

The temptation to insert the genes of animals or plants into people in order to create ‘super soldiers’ or a ‘superior race’ will certainly prove to be much too tempting. Unless something is done to hold all of this back, it seems almost certain that genetic hell will be unleashed on the human race. Once genetically-modified humans start breeding with normal humans, there will be no putting the genie back into the bottle. Eventually, we could get to the point where there are very few 100% humans left.

Most Americans have heard about genetic modification, but few know a whole lot about it. Today, the vast majority of  corn and soy that you eat have been genetically-modified. In fact, there are thousands of food products on store shelves today that contain genetically-modified material. But modifying plants is one thing. What is even more frightening is when scientists use genetic modification to mix humans with animals. Recently, a 'Daily Mail' article (http://daily mail.co.uk /sciencetech) discussed a new report in the UK that stated over 150 ‘human-animal hybrid embryos’ have been created in British labs. The following is a brief excerpt from that article . . .

"On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.”

What do you think most Americans would say if you told them that creatures 'part human/part sheep' are being grown inside the United States? Do you think that they would believe you? Well, it turns out that our scientists are creating all kinds of monsters that are part human . . . just check out what that same MSNBC article said is currently going on . . .

“In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.”

Mainstream media barely mentions the bizarre human/animal hybrids that are being created all over the country and so most Americans don't even realize that it is happening. There is a lot of other sick stuff going on out there as well. Did you know that in many areas, it is perfectly legal to create human clones for scientific research purposes? It's true . . .

These large quantities of human-derived gelatin could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of ‘animal based’ gelatin produced annually for gelatin type desserts and other products. Exactly how would this ‘human gelatin’ be made? The following is how the Science Daily article described the process: