New York University doctor Jamie Grifo says the procedure would violate California's anti-cloning law because such bans on cloning have been so hastily passed and sloppily worded. Yet Grifo's work is not at all cloning and has obvious value to infertile women. In the procedure, genes from an infertile woman's egg are transferred into another woman's healthy egg and fertilized. So the father' s sperm contributes genes, the infertile woman's genes are present, but so are mitochondrial genes which come from the cytoplasm from the healthy egg. These mitochondrial genes do not carry traits like eye or hair color, so any resulting child would receive the infertile woman's genes for such things.
Mitochondrial genes help shape basic metabolic functions.
Grifo's team has yet to produce a pregnancy with the method, but is continuing to work with a handful of women. Other researchers have expressed an interest in exploring the technique as well. A study by the Energy Information Administration finds U.S. energy costs would have to go through the roof for the country to comply with the treaty. Specifically, the study found that by the year 2010 gasoline would have to increase in price by 53 percent, over and above what it would cost without the treaty. The study also found that overall energy consumption would have to decline by more than 17 percent.