​

Ke-Hui Cui M.D., Ph.D.

Savannah, Georgia, 31405, U.S.A.

Nov. 2, 2016

Email: khcui72@hereditics.net

​

​

*Comment for "Mitochondrial replacement therapy and welfare of the child", ivf.net, Oct. 18,  2016.

​

Now human beings are facing two major challenges:

 

One is: human overpopulation in this world has over-used earth resources (air, water, plant field and ores, etc.) which should be kept on for human offspring using.

 

Second is: Human beings will be changed in heredity greatly and easily by new artificial techniques, (such as A. mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRT) [for example: mitochondrial Augment Program by OvaSciences, which suggested artificially extracted mitochondria should be injected into every eggs to obtain human babies]; B. human sperm and oocytes produced from human stem cells; C. human gene(s) to be modified in human sperm, oocytes and embryos by gene CRISPR techniques; D. human cloning; … etc.,) which are all aimed at embryo transfer to produce sub-human being babies.

 

John Zhang (New Hope Fertility Center in New York City) announced the birth of three parents’ child, which was really deliberate by John Zhang aimed as a “pioneer” similar to IVF and PGD. He exposed this point when he talked to the Chinese reporter. However, the key different point between MRT and IVF or PGD is: MRT changes human beings in heredity or in genetics, which did not naturally happen in human history; while IVF and PGD do not change human beings in heredity.

 

The birth report by John Zhang and some related propaganda are misleading in human history of natural development.

 

First, changing human beings in heredity to cure human disease for having a child is not scientific and not logical. Human beings is far, far away to that stage that the heredity should be changed for further survival. (No any patient should be treated individually as not belonging to the society of human beings.) If now we begun to change human beings in heredity as John Zhang and OvaScience suggested, human beings would really need to change the heredity for further survival in two or three centuries or much earlier, rather than over 1 million years. Thus John Zhang is short-sighted and OvaScience businessmen is disturbance in human reproductive medicine.

 

Second, concept of science from Merriam-Webster online dictionary is: “Knowledge about or study of natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation”. The birth report is not based on natural world, but to change natural human beings into artificial sub-human beings. Thus it is not a true science, but a pseudoscience. Human create science to serve human beings rather than to change human being.

 

Third, patients have their dignity. Countries have their dignity. Human beings also have their dignity. Human dignity covers patient dignity and country dignity. Human dignity is the superior dignity than any other kinds of dignity. In human dignity, the natural heredity is the highest dignity of our human beings and is the cornerstone of human beings, which makes human beings to be different from animals. Thus, human heredity should not be manipulated as animal by pseudoscientists, no matter how safe or not safe, birth or five stillbirth (from John Zhang's work). Human beings in heredity should be kept to be green as what we wish to keep the world to be, and should be much, much stricter.

 

Fourth, severe gene mutation and chromosomal abnormalities in new born babies are about 1%. That is a natural phenomenon. Changing human being in heredity will not change this natural phenomenon, because new mutations and new chromosomal abnormalities will happen all the time. However, preimplantation genetic diagnoses and prenatal diagnoses can obviously reduce this percentage.

 

Fifth, trend in the world changed: In last 400 years, industry and science developed fast, especially in recent 70 years. Antibiotics and other science greatly improve human life expectancy. Now human population is more than three times of that time of 70 years ago, and still going up. Artificial fertilizer and insecticide let us have enough food to eat; artificial cloth let us have enough clothes to wear; cars run in the cities and highway. In those years, “artificial” is a positive term and a strong trend. The birth of cloned sheep Dolly was the apex of “artificial”. Mitochondrial replacement techniques in human reproduction followed next year. People cheered. However, in a very short time, Dolly showed a lot of “reprogramed” problem. And the fact of MRT, which showed the human genes had been changed, exposed. Criticism about MRT began, which was recognized as “negative” in reproductive medicine at that time, because MRT is a “science”. Nevertheless, facts were relentless. A lot of true negative news about the word “artificial” reported in our daily life: Air is polluted by industrialization; Plant field turned hard by artificial fertilizer; Water and food is contaminated by insecticides; Men’s sperm count is going down by all kinds of artificial chemical substance. They showed that the earth is limited for resources. It has been out of the limit for natural recirculation and cleaning.  “We want green (natural environment)” has suddenly become a popular and positive slogan in our lovely world in these 15 years opposite the last 400 years. The word “artificial” lost its luster, from positive meaning changing to negative meaning, which is replaced by the word “natural” or “green” as positive trend in a lot of fields of our daily life and in some field of reproductive medicine. People begin to realize MRT to change human beings in heredity is negative, because it crossed redline of normal and natural human Genetics, which will change our offspring forever.

 

Sixth, using naive and wrong British congress decision to challenge severe US FDA regulation is not appropriate, while an American physician even worked in Mexico and gave the report in US. No people believes US FDA is nothing when facing activities of anti-human heredity. Cooperated with US FDA and State Department, Chinese government has banned this kind of practice of changing human beings in China in 2003 since John Zhang’s first report of similar practice with a five-stillbirth crime in China. Further international cooperation and international regulations are needed for protecting human beings from being changed in heredity.

 

​

​

 

​