一个孩子仨父母：三亲家庭将在英国出现

2016年接近尾声，是时候梳理过去一年生命科学和医疗领域的大事了。药品定价方面的争议和大规模调查非法勾结搅得大型药企震动频频。保险公司和医院还在努力面对唐纳德·特朗普上台的事实，研究新政府对病人和行医底线的影响。哦对了，还有一些专门科研成果即将进入市场，包括CRISPR基因编辑技术首次应用于人类临床试验。

虽然医药领域受政治动荡，还有不少看似合理的丑闻影响，但未来数年甚至数十年里还得靠生物医药领域的革新引领医药行业前进，延长人类寿命。政府也得与时俱进，接受科学家已经可以修改基因并重新整合基础生物学的现实。

上周四英国政府就做了榜样，正式批准妇产医院测试有三方父父母的婴儿。但规定此法只能在极端情况下使用，主要为了治疗线粒体紊乱。

“今天这一历史性的决定意味着，如果婴儿可能罹患致命的线粒体相关疾病，父母可以选择该疗法孕育健康且有血缘的后代，”英国人类受精与胚胎管理局主席萨利·切希尔在一份声明中表示。“对面临疾病风险的家庭来说，这项规定会完全改变他们的生活。”

这项技术并非新事，也不是英国突然决定接受。过去两年该项技术逐渐成型，英国政府的批准只是监管流程的最后一步。

当然，这项举动也引发了争议。生化学家和一些请愿团一直在警告，该技术可能导致滑坡谬误，对后代产生难以预计的后果。而且可能使未来像电影《变种异煞》中一样变成“设计婴儿”的世界。美国甚至有议员认为应该颁布法令禁止研究“为了加入某项可遗传的基因特性而人为制造或修改人类胚胎”。但现实是，不管我们是否准备好，未来已在眼前。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

As 2016 draws to a close, there’s plenty to look back on in the world of the life sciences and health care. Controversies over drug pricing and wide-scale investigations into illegal collusion rocked the world of big pharma; insurers and hospitals are grappling with the reality of a Donald Trump administration, and what it might mean for their patients and bottom lines; and, oh, there was also some pretty special science inching closer to the marketplace, including the advent of the first CRISPR gene-editing clinical trials in humans.

For all the political anxieties and legitimate scandals to hit the sector, it’s that kind of biopharma innovation that will continue to change the face of medical care and human life itself in the years and decades to come. And governments will have to catch up with a brave new world wherein we can modify genes and re-engineer basic biology.

The U.K. took just such a step on Thursday, officially sanctioning fertility clinics to become licensed practitioners of creating three-parent babies. The method can only be used in very specific circumstances in order to fight devastating mitochondrial disorders.

“Today’s historic decision means that parents at very high risk of having a child with a life-threatening mitochondrial disease may soon have the chance of a healthy, genetically related child,” said Sally Cheshire, chair of the U.K.’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), in a statement. “This is life-changing for those families.

The technique isn’t new, and neither is the U.K.’s decision to embrace it. Rather, it’s the final step in a regulatory process that has been taking shape over the last two years.

And this is, of course, controversial. Bioethicists and certain advocacy groups have warned that such technology can lead to a slippery slope with unknown consequences for future generations, and give rise to a Gattaca-like world of “designer babies.” U.S. lawmakers even felt compelled to establish legislation barring research “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.” But what’s clear is this: the future is here, whether we’re ready for it or not.