TORONTO, Feb 2 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children was in the news today for her research involving gene therapy in lambs. According to reports, her research team has successfully performed gene therapy on a fetal lamb with results that may be able to benefit children born with a specific heart disorder. While Dr. Rabinovitch suggests that human trials are at least two years away, pro-life observers warn that researchers must tread with great caution in the field of gene therapy in humans.
In February 1997, Pope John Paul II addressed the Pontifical Academy for Life, who at the time was studying the theme “The Human Genome: Human Personality and the Society of the Future.” The Pope noted that “it is not licit to carry out any type of intervention on the genome which is not directed toward the good of the person … just as it is not licit to discriminate against human subjects on the basis of eventual genetic defects revealed before or after birth.” In October of the same year, scientists at Bath University in Britain announced that, using gene therapy, they had created a headless frog embryo. The Sunday Times of London reported that the researchers hope the technique will result in the production of human spare parts such as organs, made from cloned cells in laboratories. A leading researcher and embryologist at the University, Jonathan Slack, said human embryos could be grown in a similar fashion since the same genes perform similar functions in both frogs and humans.