New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith is warning that President Barack Obama’s proposed 2017 budget omits language in previous budgets that blocks the creation of genetically-modified human embryos, such as preborn lives conceived from the genetic material of three parents.
“The scientific community in the US has made clear it would like to create genetically modified human embryos, recently releasing a report that advises the FDA to move forward with approving these controversial technologies,” according to a statement from Smith’s office. “The only safeguard against FDA action in favor of genetically modifying human embryos is” pro-life language drafted by Alabama Republican Congressman Bob Aderholt.
The Aderholt language kept the FDA from approving the practice in the 2016 Fiscal Year omnibus appropriations bill, but has not been included in the latest version. A panel of ethicists recommended last week that the FDA lift the ban.
However, Obama’s proposal has yet to be considered by Congress, and is likely to differ greatly from what actually becomes law.
Last year, when covering the advent of three-parent embryos in England, Live Action News’s Susan Michelle wrote, “the destruction of embryo stage humans is troubling here. Likewise, having three parents is troubling because it creates a possibility for legal (and possibly emotional, for the child) trouble and battles, despite the assertion only a small amount of the DNA is from the third woman.”
