The Special Report

Babies born with two mothers and one father

Babies born with two mothers and one father

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor 

The babies were the result of a controversial method to boost the success rate of IVF infertility treatment in older women by introducing mitochondria - the “power packs” of cells - from a younger woman into their eggs. 

However, because cellular power packs carry their own genetic blueprint, the resulting babies have a mixture of DNA from the two women and the father: technically they have three parents. 

Because the mixture of genes will be passed down the maternal line to future generations, it marks the first example of what is called germline gene therapy, technically breaking a genetic taboo. This therapy is outlawed in Britain and many other countries, ostensibly because of the risks of meddling with genetic material and introducing possible side-effects that would be passed on to subsequent generations. 

The germline gene therapy debate has focused on what the majority of people understand as genetic modification, the alteration of DNA in the nucleus of cells - the DNA that makes us what we are, shaping appearance, intellect and so on. 

But this new technique, called ooplasmic transplantation, aims to correct problems within mitochondria and introduce other cellular factors without changing the genetic blueprint in the nucleus of an egg. 

Although it has a more subtle effect on cellular metabolism, it still alters the DNA of future generations. 

Some 30 children worldwide have been born using the technique, reports a team led by Dr Jacques Cohen, from the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey, a respected figure in reproductive medicine. 

Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year-old children confirm that they contain a small quantity of additional genes not inherited from either parent but from the egg donor. 

The technique has been criticised by Lord Winston, the infertility pioneer at Hammersmith Hospital in London. 

He said that the work was “disturbing” because ooplasmic transplantation has not been sufficiently tested on animals to see, for example, whether nuclear and implanted mitochondrial DNA affect each other. 

Lord Winston doubted that it was a fruitful approach to treating infertility. 

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the body that regulates such work in Britain has decided not to allow the treatment. Professor Joe Cummins of the University of Western Ontario in Canada said: “Now is not the time to bring in human germline gene therapy through the back door.” - Daily Telegraph

Bra that makes breasts bigger without surgery

By Robert Uhlig 

Unlike bras that increase cleavage only while being worn, the Brava increases breasts by at least one cup size even when the woman is not wearing it. Clinical tests have been completed and it has been licensed in America for patients who are concerned about the health risks of breast implants. 

The £1,600 bra, which looks like body armour, has two plastic domes linked to a computer-controlled vacuum pump hidden in a pocket in the side of the bra. 

The domes fit over the breasts and stimulate growth by gently pulling tissue into a slight vacuum. The results of a trial published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery showed all the women who wore it for 10 to 14 hours a day experienced an increase in the size of their breasts. 

At the end of the study scientists led by Roger Khouri, a plastic surgeon from Florida, discovered the 12 women’s breasts had increased in volume by 55 per cent on average. In some cases breasts more than doubled in size. 

Biopsies of six of the women’s breasts found the device had stimulated growth of normal tissue. 

Dr Khouri said: “If you put suction cup pressure on breasts in a certain way, the tissue, skin, fatty tissue and cells will multiply. 

The process is slow and gradual, but it offers women a means of enlarging their breasts without the pain and risk of surgery.” Dr Khouri said that it took more than 10 weeks to achieve further growth, but the results were permanent. 

He said: “This gradual process gives women more control over the change in their appearance. 

Because the tissue growth is self-produced, the result is more natural, as opposed to the artificial appearance that can accompany breast implants.” 

Rod Rohrich, head of plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwes-tern, said he was sceptical until he had seen the results of several women he had supervised during the study. He said: “All of them had at least a cup size change, which is about 100 cubic centimetres. As far as I know this is the first non-surgical way of truly getting some breast enlargement.” 

The Brava, which goes on sale in America this month, costs about half as much as breast surgery. However, women with a history of breast cancer or disease, and those who have not reached physical maturity are advised not to use it. 

-Daily Telegraph

General’s confessions of torture stun France

By Barry James 

Mr. Chirac ordered the removal of General Paul Aussaresses from the Legion of Honor, an award for service or achievement, and said he had asked the defense minister, Alain Richard, to propose possible disciplinary action. A statement from the Elysee Palace said the president was horrified by the disclosures and that nothing could justify such acts. 

A former counterintelligence officer and parachutist, General Aussaresses also holds the Resistance Medal for his action with the Free French Forces in World War II.

“The situation was explosive,” he said in a book published this week, explaining why he resorted to torture during the battle of Algiers in 1957, when 10,000 French paratroopers surrounded the Muslim Casbah and succeeded in largely destroying a 1,400-man rebel underground network and blowing up the suspected headquarters of the National Liberation Front. 

“There were threats of bombing attacks all the time and everywhere,” he added. “I needed information, I had to win time and I didn’t have the right to hesitate. It’s efficient, torture. Most people crack and talk. Then, most of the time, we killed them.” 

The one positive outcome from the Aussaresses affair is that the truth about the Algerian war of independence more than four decades ago may now come into the open. Official records from the period were opened last week. Mr. Chirac, who served in Algeria before the period described in General Aussaresses’ book, said he hoped historians would be quick to shed light on the period. 

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said he had been “deeply shocked” by the general’s disclosures about torture and summary executions and expressed his “total moral condemnation.” The disclosures were made with “revolting cynicism,” he said. 

In the book, General Aussaresses acknowledged publicly for the first time that he had murdered two Algerian liberation leaders, whose deaths have until now been described officially as suicides. They were Ali Boumendjel and Larbi Ben M’Hidi, whose sister announced in Algiers that she intends to take legal action against General Aussaresses. 

“I want to know how my brother was tortured, by what means, and what he said before he died under torture,” Drifa Hassani said. 

Stories of French brutality during the war have been common currency for some time, justified in the minds of some apologists by the fact the French forces were fighting a liberation army that itself commonly used atrocity as a weapon. 

The issue came into the open last November when General Aussaresses and another top officer, General Jacques Massu, 92, spoke out publicly about torture in newspaper interviews.

The publication of General Aussaresses’ autobiography this week, however, means the issue can no longer be ignored, since in the eyes of some legal experts he has publicly avowed actions that could be construed as crimes against humanity. There is no statute of limitations against such crimes under French law, although in 1968 the National Assembly declared an amnesty covering all acts committed during the war. 

The League of Human Rights filed a lawsuit against the general on Friday alleging that his book was an apology for war crimes, and Amnesty International said that if France could try war criminals from the Vichy period in World War II, it should also “live up to its legal obligations in the Algerian war.” - International Herald Tribune

Armed with computers, they will go to war

By Peter Pae 

U.S. military officials believe the system, developed by engineers at TRW Inc.’s research laboratory, could alter the way wars are fought by giving soldiers unprecedented access to battlefield information. 

It marks another significant step toward the Pentagon’s goal of using information technology to defeat enemies before they have a chance to threaten American lives. 

Last week, in the first major demonstration of the revolutionary concept, about 950 U.S. Army tanks and armored personnel carriers fought a mock battle here, outfitted with 10-inch (25-centimeter) computer monitors that told them instantly where they were, where they should go, and where the enemy might be. 

Aided by spy satellites orbiting above, each crew was able to view a digital map of the landscape, including three dimensional contours, that gave it a better overview of the skirmish than any general ever had. 

Moreover, the commander in the operations centre miles from the front line, was able to monitor each vehicle, know its precise location and determine whether it needed a new supply of ammunition. The commander was then able to quickly come up with a battle plan before relaying orders to the crew’s computer monitor. 

Eventually, Pentagon officials plan to outfit infantrymen with handheld personal computer devices like the Palm, giving each soldier capabilities similar to those of the tank crews. The handheld devices tap the video-game skills of young soldiers, enabling them to instantly pinpoint their position, find enemies and eventually aim weapons. 

The infantry traditionally has ranked low on the Pentagon’s list of technology priorities. The army receives only about 14 percent of the Pentagon’s annual $38 billion research and development budget. Of that, $86 million is spent on research into the troops’ food, clothing and equipment. The TRW system could be a huge boost for the soldier. 

“We’re redefining war,” said Colonel John Antal, commander of the 16th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Knox, Kentucky, which coordinated the military exercise. “We’re demonstrating to America the power of information as an element of combat.” 

The exercise here demonstrated for the first time the concept of a “digital” army, a radical new idea that TRW engineers are helping to pioneer as the Pentagon looks to transform the military into a “faster, lighter and smarter” force. 

The mantra reflects post-Cold War realities, in which U.S. troops are expected to fight swift regional skirmishes rather than set battles with heavy equipment, defense analysts said. 

Taking cues from the Internet, the system relies on a complex network of wireless modems, satellite links and traditional human scouts to compile a computerized overview of a battlefield.

- Los Angeles Times Service 

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