What happened?
Researchers in Oregon have successfully “gene edited” human embryos to remove a mutation that causes sudden heart failure, the first such success reported outside China.
The US-Korean study used gene editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 to fix mutations in embryos made with the sperm of a man who had inherited a heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. If embryos were edited at the time of fertilisation the mutation was “fixed” in 42 out of 58 cases.
What the media are saying
“Humanity has gained the power to engineer its own evolution,” the Financial Times declared, celebrating the project’s “laudable aims” in a leader. “The project’s success should inspire governments, regulatory authorities and medical academies around the world to prepare more actively for clinical trials leading to genetically engineered babies,” it said.
Dr David King, founder of the secular group Human Genetics Alert, said that “if you peel away the hype, the truth is that we already have robust ways of avoiding the birth of children with such conditions, where that is appropriate, through genetic testing of embryos”. Writing in the Guardian, he said money would be better spent on developing cures for these conditions. “Gene editing” will fast lead to a consumer market for “designer babies”, he said.
What Catholics are saying
Dr David Jones, director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, a Catholic institute in Oxford, said the study was “the essence of eugenics”.
“We are manufacturing new human beings for manipulation and quality control, and experimenting on them with the aim of forging greater eugenic control over human reproduction. This is not a case of using bad means for a good end, but of bad means to a worse end,” he said.
“Eugenics involves not only scientific experimentation but social experimentation, and we have seen the results of such experiments.”
Dr Anthony McCarthy, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, noted that the study created modified embryos and then destroyed them: it was “hard to think of a worse use of gene editing technology”.
✣Euthanasia a routine part of Dutch life, says study
What happened?
Euthanasia accounts for 4.5 per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands, according to areview in the New England Journal of Medicine. The percentage, drawn from 2015 data, rose to 8 per cent when including assisted suicide. The authors said the use of euthanasia and assisted suicide had become “common practice”.
Why was it under-reported?
The story was reported by Associated Press, but, remarkably, was ignored by British media. Euthanasia is perhaps no longer a hot topic in Britain. The last attempt to introduce assisted suicide was roundly defeated in the Commons in 2015. But more than that, much of Britain’s press is supportive of assisted suicide in some form. Even among euthanasia campaigners the Netherlands is not seen as a good model. It allows euthanasia where there is “unbearable suffering” that won’t improve. More restrictive laws say patients must have at the most six months left to live.
What will happen next?
In January, 200 Dutch doctors warned that legal protections were “slowly breaking down”, with patients suffering dementia or mental illness being killed “without actual oral consent”. Cardinal Willem Eijk told Catholic News Service that the Church had warned “from the beginning” that, “when one breaks the principle that human life is an essential value, one steps on the slippery slope”. The slope is likely to stay slippery. A bill last year proposed assisted suicide for the lonely, bereaved, or those declining in old age.
✣The week ahead
Good news for sky-gazers: the next few days are the best time of year to see a meteor shower called the “tears of St Lawrence”. The shower, most visible in the early hours of the morning, consists of a stream of debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Its appearance coincides with St Lawrence’s feast day on August 10. The saint was burnt alive by the Romans in AD 258.
Archbishop Peter Smith is to celebrate Mass at Southwark Cathedral tomorrow to mark the centenary of Blessed Oscar Romero’s birth. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, promoter of Romero’s Cause (pictured), will preach.
Masses for the Assumption are being celebrated this weekend. Catholics in North Yorkshire have the option of observing the feast in a 15th-century chapel carved into a cliff. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, Knaresborough, was built by “John the Mason” in 1408. Mass will be celebrated there tomorrow at 2pm. The chapel is usually open for just two hours a week.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.