介绍:
Britain is inviting the public to weigh in on draft rules allowing scientists to create embryos using DNA from three people - a man and two women. The technique aims to prevent mothers from passing on potentially fatal genetic diseases.
The latest public review should be the last step before politicians consider changing the law to let doctors offer the new fertilization techniques to patients. That would make Britain the first country in the world to allow the procedure to help people have children.
The British government hopes to gather as many views as possible before introducing its final regulations. The proposed rules have been published online and the government is inviting people to respond by late May.
The public input isn't meant to debate whether the controversial techniques should be permitted. Instead, it concerns how they should be used to prevent relatively rare diseases caused by DNA defects.
Mistakes in certain cells' genetic code can result in diseases such as heart problems and mental retardation.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A Swedish doctor says four women who received transplanted wombs have had embryos transferred into them in an attempt to get pregnant.
In all, nine women in Sweden have received new wombs since 2012, but two had to have them removed because of complications.
The women received wombs donated by their mothers or other close relatives. The experimental procedure is designed to test whether it's possible to transfer a uterus so a woman can give birth to her own biological child.
These women had in vitro fertilization before the transplants, using their own eggs to make embryos.
Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Goteborg is leading the research.
The doctor predicts that three or four of these women might successfully give birth.
There have been two previous attempts to transplant a womb - in Turkey and Saudi Arabia - but both failed to produce babies.
Doctors in Britain and Hungary are also planning similar operations, but using wombs from women who have recently died.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
We turn to the United States. A DNA test of a pregnant woman's blood is more accurate than current methods of screening for Down's syndrome and other common disorders.
If other studies bear this out, it could transform prenatal care by giving a more reliable, non-invasive way to detect these problems very early in pregnancy.
That offers women a safe and accurate alternative. It would let couples decide sooner whether to have an abortion or to prepare for a major medical problem.
It may also cut down on the 200,000 or more invasive tests done each year in the United States to diagnose or rule out problems with a fetus.
Several companies already sell these DNA blood tests. The tests can be done when the fetus is only 9 to 10 weeks old, a couple of weeks sooner than current methods.
The current methods screen for disorders caused by extra or missing chromosomes, such as Down's syndrome. Down's syndrome occurs in about one of every 700 pregnancies.
The old methods are imprecise. Ultrasound and various blood tests can hint at a problem but don't directly test for one.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
We stay in the U.S. "Non-Stop" couldn't be stopped at the box office.
Universal's airliner thriller starring Liam Neeson as a federal air marshal on a disastrous flight landed in first place in its debut weekend at the box office with 28.9 million US dollars.
Fox's biblical tale "Son of God" featuring Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado as Jesus opened closely behind "Non-Stop" in second place with 25.6 million dollars.
The Warner Brothers' animated romp "The Lego Movie" earned 20.8 million dollars, bringing its total domestic haul to 209 million dollars.
That is the end of this edition of NEWS Plus Special English. To fresh up your memory, I'm going to read one of the news at normal speed. Please listen carefully.
That is the end of today's program. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Hope you can join us every day at CRI NEWS Plus Radio, to learn English and learn about the world.
