美国国家公共电台 NPR Her Son Is One Of The Few Children To Have 3 Parents' DNA

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Women from around the world have started going to a clinic in Ukraine hoping to get pregnant. The clinic is doing something that no one else in the world will do for them - make babies using DNA¹ from three different people. Earlier today on Morning Edition, NPR health correspondent Rob Stein took us inside the clinic to see how doctors create these children. Now, in an exclusive report, Rob introduces us to one of the world's first three-parent mothers and her son. Rob is the first journalist to interview one of these parents.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE²: To meet this baby and his mom, I take the train from Kiev five hours west to a city near the Russian border.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: In few minutes, we will arrive at our final destination, city of Kharkiv.

STEIN: I make my way to a big Soviet-era apartment building on the outskirts³ of town. Kids are running around a school playground next door. As I go inside and start walking up to the third floor, my interpreter reminds me that the baby is probably napping.

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: Right here we need to be a little bit quiet.

STEIN: Oh, is the baby sleeping?

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: Yeah, the baby's sleeping.

(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)

STEIN: The mother of one of only a handful of three-parent babies in the world cracks open the door to her tiny apartment.

Hello.

TAMARA: Hello.

STEIN: I'm Rob Stein from NPR.

TAMARA: OK. My name is Tamara.

STEIN: Her name isn't really Tamara. She's using that to protect her privacy and her sons'. She knows how unusual and controversial her baby might be to some people.

TAMARA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: Take your shoes off.

STEIN: Take my shoes off? OK.

TAMARA: Because little children.

STEIN: The shoes are lined up neatly⁴ on a rack in the entrance way next to a baby stroller. We tiptoe past the son's room over to the kitchen table. It's just her and her son at home today. Her husband's at work. After we settle in, Tamara starts telling me her story. She's 31 and always wanted kids.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) Six years ago, I met my husband. And in six months, we started to - we tried to bring a child. And that attempt failed.

STEIN: She went through round after round of IVF for years. It was a grueling emotional rollercoaster. Nothing worked.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) I was quite sad. And some moment I even lost my hope, and at some moments - or even think about I should drop all this thing. But then you find some forces in yourself and some emotions because to have a child is goal which you couldn't drop.

STEIN: Then she heard about a clinic in Kiev where doctors told her about something new.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) They explained us the procedure, its stages. And they showed us pictures for how many genes⁵ the child would have from mother, father. And all this unique stuff they explained us properly.

STEIN: The doctors would fertilize⁶ one of her eggs with her husband's sperm⁷, then use her husband's sperm to fertilize an egg from another woman paid to donate her eggs. Next, remove most of the DNA from the other woman's fertilized⁸ egg and replace it with Tamara and her husband's genes.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) My first reaction - whoa, how science got so far. It's unbelievable that they can make such stuff. It's wonderful and unbelievable.

STEIN: The idea is that a tiny bit of DNA left over from the other woman might make the difference. It provides energy for the egg and embryo⁹. But the resulting baby would have DNA from three different people - Tamara, her husband and the woman who donated the egg. But that didn't bother Tamara or her husband.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) I knew that that tiny little bit of DNA is not responsible for such crucial stuff as your eyes' color, your hair, your character and all other important stuff. It's very tiny part of DNA which seemed not very important for child appearance and his character, his mentality¹⁰.

STEIN: And it worked. For the first time in her life, she was able to get pregnant, hear her baby's heart beating in her womb and give birth to a baby.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) It was a lot of smiles, a lot of tears of happiness. I can't describe it. It's how happiness feels.

STEIN: She never told most people in her life about how her son came to be. He's now 15 months old.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) I'm so excited I have a child. And he's so beautiful. He smiles to me. He's so cute. He's so smart. He looks like my mom.

STEIN: But there are big worries about this. The biggest one - is it safe? Her son seems perfectly¹¹ healthy so far, but who knows what might show up months or years from now? The procedure is banned in the United States, so one New York doctor went to Mexico to make a baby this way. Britain has just started letting doctors try it very carefully, one baby at a time, and only to see if this might be a safe way to prevent terrible genetic¹² disorders¹³. Tamara says she wasn't bothered about how new and untested the procedure is.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) I had no doubts. We had no doubts. I wanted a child so hard that I didn't care about how much experimental the procedure would be.

STEIN: But that's not all. The donor's DNA could be passed down to future generations by any girls born this way, so any problems could be passed down for generations, too. And some worry making inheritable genetic modifications¹⁴ like this could open the door to designer babies. Tamara isn't worried about any of that either. She's just thrilled to finally have a baby.

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) In my point of view, if you can fix something, you should fix it.

STEIN: Tamara paid about $8,000 - a lot of money in Ukraine. The clinic's charging women from other countries about $15,000, which is about as much as IVF usually costs in the United States. The clinic says they've created four healthy babies this way, and three more women are pregnant, including a woman from Sweden. And they've formed a company with a New York clinic to market the service to American women. As we wrap up the interview in Tamara's apartment, her son wakes up from his nap.

Hello, you cutie.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)

STEIN: My microphone scares him.

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: I'm sorry, but we're shy for now at this age.

STEIN: No, I totally understand.

She tries jingling¹⁵ her keys to cheer up.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)

STEIN: I'm sorry.

Just as we're leaving. I can't help but ask, does she ever think about the fact that her son's one of the first human beings in the world with DNA from three different people?

TAMARA: (Through interpreter) Yes, of course it's still important. But at the end we are all children of Adam and Eve, so we are all connected.

STEIN: She says she's not sure if she'll ever tell her son about how he came to be. She might. She's just not sure. Rob Stein, NPR News, Kharkiv, Ukraine.

1 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

4 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

5 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

6 fertilize   

v.使受精，施肥于，使肥沃

参考例句：

• Fertilizer is a substance put on land to fertilize it.肥料是施在地里使之肥沃的物质。
• Reading will fertilize his vocabulary.阅读会丰富他的词汇。

7 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

8 Fertilized   

v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
• Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。

9 embryo   

n.胚胎，萌芽的事物

参考例句：

• They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
• The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。

10 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

11 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

12 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

13 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 modifications   

n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变

参考例句：

• The engine was pulled apart for modifications and then reassembled. 发动机被拆开改型，然后再组装起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The original plan had undergone fairly extensive modifications. 原计划已经作了相当大的修改。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 jingling   

叮当声

参考例句：

• A carriage went jingling by with some reclining figure in it. 一辆马车叮当驶过，车上斜倚着一个人。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Melanie did not seem to know, or care, that life was riding by with jingling spurs. 媚兰好像并不知道，或者不关心，生活正马刺丁当地一路驶过去了呢。