Unit 5 task 4
Good morning and welcome to the Mary heart show where we interview professors from around the world, today we are joined with professor Shareen director of the Centre for Genetic Diseases at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia who is going to talk to us about her opinion of the way media has reported on three parent babies.
1) In ‘sky news’ it states that ‘This would allow a woman carrying Mitochondrial Diseases to have healthy children.’ How far do you agree with the way the media has reported this issue.

Well, Susanna from my understanding I see that ‘sky news’ has a very positive approach to three parent babies and have not got very much cons to the procedure, I do believe that it allows women to have healthy children but only up to a certain point. You see, it hasn’t really been justified of the amount of healthy children that could possibly survive this treatment and it hasn’t mentioned the possibility of it going wrong. Therefore I would say that sky new’s is biased in the way it has reported this issue. This could be down to the fact that it knows it would grab the audience’s attention aiming at young mums and parents all around the world.

2) Yes, I see, so what concerns do you think this would have caused in the general public?

The general public must have mixed emotions towards the way the media has reported this issue, this is because although the pros and advantages have been justifies the outcomes and effects have not. I think the public are reluctant in believing this procedure would work due to the fact that it can have a negative effect on their baby’s life and their life. As you know, I am a genetic diseases specialist and I know the possibilities it could have on the baby. If the procedure goes wrong or something happens which shouldn’t, then the baby could be left with a disease for the rest of its life, whether it’s a mental or physical disease. To conclude, the general public may have concerns that could affect their future and children’s well-being.

3) That’s a very strong point made; moving on, how do you think scientific issues should be reported?

I have read a lot of media reports in my spare time, enough to know that reports can be biased, untruthful, and poorly backed up. I strongly believe that scientific issues should be reported cautiously as they are a very important matter as people in the public reply on science to