据国外媒体报道，美国科学家近日培育出了世界上第一批转基因婴儿。参与这一项目的科学家们在6月27日晚上宣布了这一结果，他们利用基因修改技术培育出了30个婴儿。此外，其中两个被测试的婴儿被发现含有来自三位不同成人的基因。据研究人员称，这项实验历时超过3年。

这批转基因婴儿由不能怀上自己孩子的妇女所生。为了“生下”孩子，来自另一名女性捐献者的额外基因被注入了这些妇女的卵子，然后使卵子受精。科学家们采集了其中两个转基因婴儿的指纹，并证实，他们继承了三个成年人的DNA：一个男人和两个女人。这意味着，由于在基因修改过程中继承了这些额外的基因，他们将来也能把这些基因传给自己的后代。换句话说，如果允许这些转基因婴儿以后与非转基因的人结婚，可能会改变他们的后代的遗传密码。

这种基因修改方法可能有一天会被用于培育拥有所需特性的婴儿，如力量强大或高智商的人类。

在此之前，英国科学家曾报道称，科学家们正在培育“人兽怪物”。这些报告突出了这样一个事实：全世界已经展开了猖獗的人类遗传实验，从而使许多科学家呼吁应该对这些稀奇古怪的做法制定新规则。美国的研究人员曾研究利用人脑细胞改造老鼠。

现在，许多专家都公然反对培育转基因婴儿，包括领先的生育专家和主要组织。保护未出生儿童协会（Society for the Protection of Unborn Children）主任约翰·史密顿（John Smeaton）说：“这是人类沿着一条错误道路又向前迈出了非常令人担忧的一步。”

World's first GM babies born

by MICHAEL HANLON, Daily Mail

The world's first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.

The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.

So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'.

Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme 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 fertilised 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.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.

Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.

Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.

Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.

'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.' Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.

They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.

Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.

A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.

Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies.

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, 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.