Scientists Question Safety Of Genetically Altering Human Eggs

A panel of government advisers has expressed serious concerns about a controversial proposal to allow scientists to try to make babies using eggs that have been genetically altered to include DNA from another woman. Members of the Food and Drug Administration panel said they were worried that not enough research has been done to know whether the experiments would be safe. “I think there was a sense of the committee that at this particular point in time, there was probably not enough data either in animals or in vitro to conclusively move on to human trials … without answering a few additional questions,” said Dr. Evan Snyder of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., chairman of the 25-member committee that met Tuesday and Wednesday.