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CNA
7 hours ago
- CNA
Singapore Tonight - Tue 12 Aug 2025
46:14 Min Singapore Tonight From business to politics, health to technology, we bring you up-to-date with the latest news on Singapore and analyze how these events may affect you tomorrow.
CNA
10 hours ago
- CNA
Commentary: With UK success, should Singapore reconsider 3-parent IVF?
SINGAPORE: The normal course of human reproduction involves two biological parents - a mother and a father. But in the United Kingdom, eight babies have been born with DNA from three people, scientists from Newcastle University reported recently. It's the result of an in-vitro fertilisation technique called mitochondrial replacement. Some call it 'three-parent IVF'. The procedure was developed to help women who are carriers of mitochondrial disease - which is passed down from mothers to their offspring - have healthy children. Mitochondrial diseases, estimated to affect 1 in 5000 births, can cause a variety of serious health problems. These include stroke-like episodes, seizures, hearing loss, diabetes and deterioration of brain functioning. In 2021, Singapore's Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC) recommended against permitting mitochondrial replacement, citing uncertainty around the safety of the technology. The committee recommended waiting for better data. 'A more definitive discussion of these issues would be better undertaken at a future date when more certainty regarding the science, techniques, safety and efficacy … is available,' stated the BAC's interim report. With Newcastle reporting healthy births and Australia already paving the way to allow mitochondrial donation, is it time to reconsider? WHAT IS MITOCHONDRIAL REPLACEMENT? Mitochondria are tiny parts of cells that act like batteries, storing and generating energy necessary for cells to operate. Mitochondrial defects can be particularly problematic for the functioning of brain and muscle cells, leading to brain disease or severe muscle weakness. The Newcastle researchers used a method called 'pronuclear transfer'. It involves three people: the mother, the father and a donor. Doctors begin by fertilising both the mother's and a healthy donor's eggs with the father's sperm. From the mother's fertilised egg, they remove the nuclear DNA - which determines most of a person's traits - leaving behind the unhealthy mitochondrial DNA. Then, they remove the nuclear DNA from the donor's fertilised egg and replace it with the nuclear DNA from the mother and father. The donor's healthy mitochondria stay in place. The resulting egg - now carrying the parents' nuclear DNA and the donor's healthy mitochondria - is then implanted into the mother. Babies born from the process inherit 99.9 per cent of their DNA from the parents and 0.1 per cent from the donor. COMPLICATED QUESTIONS The idea of 'three-parent babies' raises difficult questions. Some people are uneasy with it; the science sounds unnatural to them. Others have raised objections grounded in their faiths, such as disruption to a child's lineage or altering and destroying embryos. Another concern is that the risks simply aren't worth the benefits. The BAC report flagged key questions: What if the faulty mitochondria aren't fully removed? What if new mutations emerge and jeopardise the welfare of future generations? The Newcastle results partly address these worries, but it's just one study and the sample size is small. Caution is still warranted. At the same time, there is a positive ethical case worth highlighting. First and foremost, it can prevent the transmission of harmful disease. Children wouldn't inherit painful, life-shortening diseases. Women who carry mitochondrial disease could still have biological children without passing on illness. As a result, the number of cases of mitochondrial disease in a population would be reduced. IS IT WORTH THE COST? Even if the science is sound and the ethics can be worked through, there's still the matter of cost. Only a small number of people would benefit from mitochondrial replacement. The Newcastle study's small sample size is not an accident. In Singapore, there isn't a definitive analysis of how many families might benefit, but the number is likely to be low. Significant resources would be needed to run an effective, safe and responsible mitochondrial replacement programme. This includes conducting public consultations, potential legal reforms, hiring experts and practitioners, conducting preliminary research and establishing infrastructure. A question may be raised whether such resources are justifiable when the number who could benefit is small. Ultimately, these questions of science, ethics and cost require further societal consideration. But at the very least, the Newcastle results should prompt Singapore and other countries to (re)start a conversation around mitochondrial replacement. Do we remain cautious and wait? Or do we take careful steps forward?
Straits Times
17 hours ago
- Straits Times
DPM Gan kicks off India visit in Mumbai as Singapore firms ink investment agreements
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox – Kicking off his India visit aimed at deepening bilateral economic and business ties, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong on Aug 12 witnessed Singapore firms inking agreements committing more than 200 billion rupees' (S$2.93 billion) worth of investments in Maharashtra state. In addition, DPM Gan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry, visited PSA's port operations at Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal and inaugurated CapitaLand Investment's (CLI) first data centre in Navi Mumbai – touted as being two of the more significant investments by Singapore firms in Maharashtra. 'These investments underscore the growing bilateral economic partnership between Singapore and India and Singapore's confidence in India's long-term economic trajectory,' the Republic's Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Aug 12. DPM Gan was in Mumbai ahead of the third India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable to be held in New Delhi over two days from Aug 13. His visit also precedes Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's visit to the world's fourth-largest economy in early September as Singapore and India mark 60 years of diplomatic relations. Plans are afoot to elevate relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Singapore in 2024. India is set to follow Australia, Vietnam and France with this level of relations with the Republic. Both Asian nations have also been aggressively courting economic and security partners amid a fracturing world order, with the Trump administration upending longstanding US commitments to the post-Cold War order and imposing trade tariffs on its closest allies. The inauguration of CLI's new data centre in Navi Mumbai comes as the global real asset manager expands its data centre operations in key cities in India. Mumbai is India's financial capital and the capital of Maharashtra. The data centre sector is a growing area of cooperation between Singapore and India, which is looking to become a global hub for this business. Its data centre growth is fuelled by a large number of internet users, availability of land, and the adoption of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. At the inauguration of the data centre, DPM Gan and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for CLI to invest more than 192 billion rupees in Mumbai and Pune. CLI said the planned investments in Maharashtra will be in business parks, data centres, logistics, and industrial parks. This will add to the business parks the company has in Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune, on top of the 12 industrial and logistics parks it runs in India. The company added that the investments are part of a 'broader growth strategy for India' and that it aims to increase its funds under management from more than $8 billion to some $15 billion by 2028. DPM Gan also witnessed Singapore-based investment firm Mapletree Investments inking an MOU to invest 30 billion rupees to develop infrastructure in Maharashtra, including data centres, industrial parks and logistics parks. Additionally, he witnessed an MOU being signed between Manipal Health Enterprises and the Maharashtra government to facilitate a proposed investment by the former to construct and run a multi-speciality hospital in the city of Nagpur. DPM Gan and Mr Fadnavis toured Phase 2 of PSA Mumbai, a container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Navi Mumbai operated by the international arm of PSA. The Phase 2 extension, when completed, would make PSA Mumbai India's largest single container terminal. DPM Gan will next head to New Delhi, where he will lead the Singapore delegation at the third India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable. He will be accompanied by Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower and Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology Tan See Leng, and Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance Jeffrey Siow. They will meet Indian Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways, Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw. India and Singapore share close political, defence and economic ties, with a constant exchange of high-level visits. Singapore is India's top foreign investor and accounted for about 24 per cent of India's foreign direct investment equity inflows since 2000. Meanwhile, Indian investment in Singapore has grown from $481 million in 2004 to about $31.6 billion in 2023. The India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable is a mechanism that the Indian government has termed as 'unique' as it brings various ministers from both sides to explore how the two countries can expand cooperation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that the roundtable on Aug 13 'is an important ministerial-level platform between Singapore and India to drive cooperation in new and emerging areas'.
