join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> burned alive. isil appears to have killed a kidnapped jordanian pilot by setting him on fire. outrage in jordan and around the world. when it means for isil. and argentina the mysterious twist of a prosecutor. it involves an arrest warrant. back scenes and politics. and more standing up for the right not to vaccinate. and how many people does it make to make a baby? the first of its law

challenging the limits of in vitro fertilization. this is aljazeera america live from new york city, i'm tony harris. jordan's response in the earth shaking killing of a pilot. he was burned to death in a cage early last month. aljazeera will not show that video. a jordanian pilot was killed after his plane crashed in december. >> grief in jordan after isil released a video reportedly showing the killing. when the news came in, the 26-year-old's father, safi was attending a tribal meeting in am an.

aman. he met secretary of state, john kerry on tuesday. >> we have received with sorrow and anger the killing at the hands of a dire organization. a criminal group which does not represent our religion. >> reporter: many people on the streets of aman are in shock. >> we are so sad for him and honestly, i consider him a hero and martyr. i'm so proud that he was defending the country and the sadness, we are also his family. >> it's not civilized and suit annual. why, is this islam? this is not islam. >> reporter: the lieutenant was captured in it december when his plane came down in syria. jordan tried to secure his release through a prisoner

swap and demanded proo of that he was alive. but that never came. >> he was ordered to frighten and scare the government and the people of the coalition members. >> reporter: jordan's military has promised what it calls a severe reaction, and with emotions still raw the government is asking people to attend mass prayers in memory of the pilot on wednesday. >> jordan is now preparing to execute several prisoners as revenge for the pilot's killing. they include the woman isil wanted in exchange for the pilot. >> we are seeing a number of tv channels quoting an unnamed security source, saying that saji, who is on death row, as well as other four prisoners also on death row in jordan, and convicted to crimes related to terrorism will be executed

in the coming hours. we have not been able to confirm that ourselves and we don't know who the security source is. but what we can confirm what i can tell you and we have been able to confirm throughout the day, is the families of these two prisoners one an iraqi prisoner, he is also on death row in jordan, convicted of killing a jordanian truck driver in iraq two years ago and also being a member of an organization, as well as another prisoner, who is jordanian of coursing, being moved from his prison cell. and this is the only prison in jordan where executions are carried out. so this news may very well be confirmed in the coming hours and the last report we heard is that the executions could happen as early as wednesday

morning. >> public opinion has been split in jordan over the country's participation of the u.s.-led coalition against isil. and it will likely spark each more today. nick schiffrin is in jordan, and talk to us about the role that they are playing in the investigation. >> reporter: well, it's a central role tony, but also, it's a super role across the middle east for the u.s. for years. and it's extremely important. and we know that the jordanian pilots are flying above syria and iraq as part of this coalition, and physically, it's a very important moderate sunni arab state in the middle east and it shares a border with syria and iraq, and jordan is

extremely important for the fight in syria and iraq, and tony you cannot talk about jordan without talking about the intelligence cooperation not only over isil, but for years, the u.s. war in iraq, the wars in afghanistan really associated with israel. jordan has been absolutely at the center of the u.s. intelligence operation in the middle east. and so any pressure on jordan to lead the coalition or to somehow scoot less with the united states has a big impact. >> and nick, you were talking about the demographics of the nation why are some jordanians opposed to fighting in the fight against isil? >> in general the king derives his power from the nomadic tribes that come from the and desert. and the tribes, this particular

tribe is extremely important. and you've seen from reporters outside of their homes whether in ahman or in southern jordan one family member saying that america wants to drag us to war and we have seen protests against the king, and against the involvement of jordan in this war. but we're seeing the opposite from the official jordanian response. whether it's from the king or the jordanian official who told me this doesn't change our resolve. you can count on that, and i talked to one official, saying that the king intends to double down against his efforts against isil. so there are definitely pressures on the king, on the government to lead a coalition, and the government is saying, we're going to do want opposite and the u.s. officials as well. >> nick in jerusalem, thank

you. jordan's king abdullah was here in the united states when he got word of the pilot's death. and jordan is an important ally in the u.s.-led effort to combat isil. you just heard had a from nick schiffrin. we have more. >> tony, in a statement, chuck hagel said that the u.s. stands by their allies, and they condemned the killing in the strongest terms, saying that it's contempt for life itself. >> the death of moaz al-kassasbah was met with rage and resolve. >> it's just one more indication of the bar bare of this organization. >> and the revelation that the 26-year-old pilot was burned alive in a cage a month ago

while isil pretended that he was continuing to negotiate for his life, the president says that their ideology is bankrupt. >> we will double the vigilance and determination on the part of a global coalition to make sure that they're degraded and ultimately defeated. >> king abdullah was in washington, meeting privately on capitol hill with members of the senate foreign relations committee. the king cut short his u.s. visit after a meeting with president obama and recording a short video message. at the pentagon, the president called the pilot's execution twisted and said that it will put down support for isil in the muslim world. >> i think that this will continue to backfire in the region. >> but the pentagon realizes that the gruesome video does have some propaganda value.

>> will it possibly attract some young disenfranchised young men? it likely will. >> pinned down by u.s.-led airstrikes, unable to move or take new ground, with defeat some months off is increasingly inevitable. >> the pentagon today makes a point of not responding tit for tat for these execution of hostages but it's not giving up on anybody still being held. the history shows that the u.s. special operations forces are willing to take significant risk if they think they have the intelligence to launch a rescue mission. >> jimmy at the pentagon, and kurt vulker is here now and he is a former ambassador, and let me ask you a direct question. did isil burn this pilot to send a message to arab states involved in the coalition that we'll treat your fighters even

more brutally as a way to put more pressure on those to abandon the coalition? >> i think that it's more to the public than the governments, trying to convince the public that their governments should not be involved in the fight against isis, and about they can have that kind of public pressure, they can weaken the pressure from the militaries right now. thus far it's having the opposite affect. you can see the demonstrations in jordan, the public is repulsed biosis and wants to take revenge. so it doesn't have the effect there. but seen as a way of gaining that arab support. and even as a recruiting tool for isis fighters. >> and to your point we heard from the father of the jordanian pilot, pushing the

government. and saying that this is not our fight. so just how real is the support for the arab fighters in this coalition. we have had guests on this program suggest that it's not very robust. >> i don't degree with that. coming from the government, they know that this kind of violence extremism attacks not only the west and those values but it's aimed at those regimes themselves. they know it's a threat against themselves. so they're perfectly committed to going after this group and trying to eliminate them. and here's where they see the delegation with the public. and hey, this is not our fight and you should not be involved. and the governments are trying to keep a low profile while indeed engaging in this fight.

paradoxically, or ironically, it goes over the line and maybe helps arab governments come on the more publicly to show, look what they have done to one of our citizens, a muslim himself it's unacceptable and that's why we need to stop it. >> so two questions on that very point. will this act in your view, redouble the coalitions efforts to take down isil as the president suggested today? >> that's a very interesting question. from the perspective of the jordanians or perhaps other arab governments i think that it strengthens their resolve for certain that they have to go after this group. in the case of the united states, i certainly hope so, but we have to see it. what we have seen thus far is the lack of a clear resolve by the united states to eliminate isis and borders. >> a lack of resolve? >> yes accumulation of steps

that we're willing to take. we're willing to do aerial bombings but when it comes to say, u.s. forces or arming the syrian opposition that's not isis we see hesitation. so we will benefit most from setting some clear goals determining what is necessary to achieve those goals and then doing everything possible to achieve them. we haven't seen that yet. but perhaps this event will also spur that kind of thing. >> interesting. and the second question on the point that you made a moment ago, does this act carry with it the potential to drive away, and this may be wishful thinking here, to drive away any remaining monetary support for isil? >> no, i don't think so. there's a lot of money out there, and there's a lot of belief in the violent causes of extremism. and they have their own sources of revenue through oil sales and control of territory and

the economies that go with that, through taxation, so i don't think we're going to see a dryup of funds going to isis. but what we will see is the resolve of those who can determine finally to eliminate them. >> let me ask this of the ambassador the u.s. ambassador to nato. jordan's government is promising an earth shaking response which looks like it will include the execution of the iraqi suicide bomber. would revenge response be the right response from jordan? >> . >> there are a couple of different ways to look at that. in terms of the psychology of the jordanian public and the resolve and demonstration of seriousness, i can see why psychological benefits would be attracted, and what it would be

called for. this woman and the others that jordan has held are still in jail rather than having them executed. so there's a judicial framework behind this as well. carrying that forward would show resolve from the jordanian state and the face of the rest of the world. but that alone is not sufficient to be a response to isis. what we do need is some long-term strategy, setting a clear goal of what we think should happen to isis and countries in the region, working with allies on that strategy, and making sure that we all agree to what we're trying to do, and not taking things off the table preemptively to make sure that we get it done. that's the long-term strategy that's called for and alongside what might be practically steps. >> kurt vulker, former

ambassador to nato joining us from washington d.c. >> thank you. >> and investigations underway in southern france after soldiers are attacked near a jewish community center. a man pulled a knife from a bag and injured three soldiers before he was arrested. the man was expelled from turkey last week, and officials say that there doesn't appear to be any connection between this suspect and the man with the same last name that attacked a kosher market last month. a prosecutor had been investigating the 1994 bombing of a jewish center. he had accused argentina's president of trying to cover upper an's involvement in the attack, and now there's a report that the prosecutor may have drafted an arrest warrant for the president. daniel is in buenos aires and tell us about the discovery. >> reporter: it's certainly a

discovery, and it's more intriguing by the day. for the president christina and her foreign minister, it was apparently found in the garbage of his flat, where he was found dead a little over two weeks ago and that has not been established whether he committed suicide or whether he was murdered. the document initially the prosecutors were saying that the document didn't exist. and then a few days later, the prosecutor said oops, i'm sorry, it does in fact exist. so people are looking at that document so see if the president were arrested. and it's a very intriguing case, mulling over time to work out the invitations now. >> absolutely, and daniel, what's the latest on the investigation into the death? >> well, the investigation whether he committed suicide

or whether he was murdered. if he was murdered, who might have been behind the murder. various theories have been put forward. whether the intelligence agency might have been behind it. and the congress is looking at ways to reform the intelligence agency and there are many more who don't believe the government. so the government is increasingly polarized. and the president is as far away as she could be. she's on an official trip to china at the moment and sending tweets. >> oh, my. daniel, thank you. and aljazeera journalist, mohammed has renounced his egyptian citizenship. and it will be easier for him

to be deported to canada where he's also a citizen. he has been held for 400 days. andand greste is on his way back. he said it's hard to leave his colleagues. and he wrote, -- coming up on the program, having a difficult time in college and it's getting worse every year. and plus, it has been 50 years since harper lee published her only book, the classic to kill a mocking bird.

>> look, i don't have to tell you, going to college is a big expense. it's more than many people will ever spend on a car or even a home in some cases. two reports show just how much of a burden higher education can be can be for families,

especially poor and middle class families. paul is here for us now. >> think about it this way a college education is actually the third and most expensive purchase that most families will ever make. that puts it into perspective. tuitions have jumped 2.9% between 2013 and 2014, and that doesn't sound like of. but when you adjust for inflation, the cost of education, it's now 42% more expensive than it was ten years ago, but there's a good thing the rate of increase, it's slowing down, but it's getting expensive faster than household income is going up. so it's a bigger piece ever the pie. there's another twist. the amount students are borrowing is going down, down 14% in the last four years but even show sew, a lot of students are graduating with serious debt. 14%o $10,000.

and 29%o more than $25,000. so more than 3/4 of all grads have a big chunk of debt. and this has a big impact on the number of students graduating. the researchers with opportunity in higher education say that the gap between graduating students in the wealthiest families and the poorest have doubled over the last 40 years. since 1970, 45 years the number of students from the lowest income families will earn a bachelors that's only up 3%, but for the wealthiest families they're doing 10 times better. and grad rates for them are up 30p.. >> the numbers do tell a story. thank you and michelle cooper is the president for the institute for higher education policy joining us from washington d.c., and michelle, good to see you. so here we go, another set of numbers, another disparity report the haves and have

nots, and why is the college completion gap between the rich and the poor widening in this country? >> well, it's great to be here, thanks for having me. the information that you all stated are important facts to know about. for those of us working day in and day out in the college arena, we know that these numbers are there but i think the report is very important because it shows everyone that these are some long standing persistent opportunity gaps that we're facing, and thank you see issues around affordability, and we have to ask ourselves are we really making this opportunity possible for all students? especially the low and moderate knocked students, and those in historically underrepresented groups, like blacks and latinos t. so it's an issue for this time. >> affordability don't you -- generally speaking -- don't you

invest in what you value and what you care about? do these numbers suggest that we don't care enough about education in this country? >> . >> i agree with you i agree wholeheartedly that we all invest in things that we think of as priorities. about you what the numbers show, as a country we're losing ground. we need to be making stronger, more consistent investments not just education across the board, but targeting those investments to the communities that we know need our help and support. and that's what is really important right now. prioritizing how we're going to spend our time. >> wait a minute michelle. making k-14, community college mandatory, that's what the president wants to do, and when you heard that proposal in the state of the union address what did you think? >> i think what president obama is offering us is an

interesting, provocative proposal. free community college pretty provocative, so it's an interesting thing but we have to consider that the devil is in the details and two details that we have to think about to ensure that we don't have unintended consequences with this. the first is not funding. community colleges have been historically underfunded. and that's going to increase if we try to increase capacity by having them serve more and more students. so if we want more students to go to community colleges, we have to fix the funding problem. and the second is around the students that the community colleges have historically served. that's lower income and minority students, and i'm very worried that if we have free community college for anybody and anybody can go, our -- our high income students then going to displace the low to modern income kids, where are they

going to go? >> before i lose you here, you're the education czar, and that's who you are now and you are giving advice to the president, and what are you going to say to them. >> i'm going to say that they need to focus on three critical areas. improving outcome and fixing affordability issues, so we can have college be more affordable for so many students, and the third is around quality. we want to make sure that our students are graduating with quality degrees and that's going to help them in the long-term. >> who pays? you said affordability a couple of times and we know the numbers are off the chart and who pays? >> everyone has a role to pay. educated society is a public good and it's a private good. it's a responsibility between the government and the institutions and between the students and there were families. the interesting thing is that in recent years state

governments have declined their supports for institutions which have caused the tuitions to go up and taking more money out in student loans. i just want to say that the federal government has maintained their commitment, but they have not been able to keep pace with the rising cost of college and we have to fix this problem. >> michelle, appreciate it. and i just mismanaged the clock on this, my apologies. michelle cooper, in washington d.c., you're too good. thank you. and the growing debate over parental choice in vaccinations is now making it's way to washington d.c., and congress is adding it's voice to the fray. and why retail stores are being told there's something wrong with herbal supplements.

>> the resurgence of a potentially deadly disease which was all but eliminated in this country has politicians taking sides and the presidential contenders are sounding off for measles vaccinations, and who should get them and is it all right for parents to say no? mike viqueira has more from washington. >> reporter: in a sense, this was inevitable. as the number of measles cases grow, the question is whether parents should be able to keep their children from getting vaccinations has become a geo political football. with them stubbling to find an answer. for a panel of top government

experts, there's no dispute getting your kids immunized is the right thing to do. >> you have one of the most highly effective vaccines against any virus and you have a highly contagious disease measles, that can have serious complications, so it's a slam dunk. >> but do parents have the right to refuse the vaccinations for their children? for those calling it individual liberty, against others, who cite the responsibility to keep a community free of exposure. rapid paul, a medical doctor, and gop contender for president, warned of dangers. >> i heard of many tragic cases of walking talking children, who wound up with mental disorders after vaccines. >> but those linking vaccines to autism, have been debunked time and time again from

research. hillary clinton, who tweeted the science is clear the earth is round the sky is blue, and vaccines work. let's protect all our kids. hashtag grandmothers know best. and late tuesday paul tweeted this picture. he said he's getting a booster shot. the latest numbers, 102 cases of measles in 14 states this year. most linked to california's disneyland and most of those affected had never been immunized. proposing a cut to immunization programs. >> if everybody should be vaccinated why should you cut that program. >> new rules under the affordable care act. >> we have required the preventive coverage, including vaccinations like those with measles. >> mr. obama is walking a fine

line stopping short of requiring. >> we should not need a federal law, people should use common sense. >> john boehner has taken a similar stance. >> i don't know that we need another law but i do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated. >> and tony, the other presidential candidates on the republican side, ted cruz, and marco rubio coming out in favor of having parents vaccinating their children. and rand paul is seriously backtracking. on getting a help titus booster, and he said that vaccinations are linked with mental disorders. >> mike viqueira, we're going to get into this more with politics. this vaccine debate has created a real divide in the field. and david schuster has more.

>> reporter: rand paul is being out flanked by somebody to the left, who is normally to the right. and that's ben carson, a neuro surgeon. he has been getting a lot of attention. he issued this statement: if you haven't heard much about ben carson, that is going to change. styling about our culture has been resonating with republican activists. >> as we begin to throw away all of our values and all of our principles, and we forget who we are we will go from being great to being nothing. and we have to fight that. >> according to federal election commission reports last year, run ben run the federal political action committee, seeking carson,

raised over $12 million and that's more than any presidential pact, including one that rand paul has. and running for hillary which supports a potential clinton campaign. elizabeth warren continues to insist that she's not running in 2016, but the progressive move. urging her to take on hillary clinton, is gaining steam. dozens of activists led by mark ruffalo, urging other celebrities to join in the cause. >> brothers and sisters and artists, i'm asking you that you join me and other folks so far, with getting onboard with asking elizabeth warren to run in a serious way. >> ruffalo said that even if she doesn't win the nomination, she can help to push the democratic party and it's nominee to the left. in the obama administration, another vote in the u.s. house. >> the yeas are 2 39 and the

nays are 136 and the bill is passed. >> for the 56th time since the affordable care act passed five years ago the republican house voted to repeal the law. the effort is going nowhere in the u.s. senate. but still, they wanted to give the 47 house republicans who just took office the opportunity to be on the congressional record against obamacare. over sees. israel prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, his party released a new political ad starting with young parents getting ready to go out on date night. >> a babysitter? [ foreign dialogue ] >> those are his opponents at the end.

but jokes aside, the israeli political ads will be talking about that. and it's huge, and it could have a huge influence on it. >> appreciate it. today's politics. in washington, president obama's plan to normalize relations with cuba came underfire in today's hearing. florida senator, marco rubio the son of immigrants, chaired the hearing. he just returned from cuba. and he faced tough questions about efforts to include ties and plans and to set up an embassy in havana. >> we will never agree with the cuban government that we will agree to limit our personnel. >> we're going to keep pushing to get those restrictions lifted as part of an embassy. >> it's a pretty straightforward question. would we ever agree that in order to open an embassy, we would agree to not push democracy? >> i can't imagine that we

would go to the next stage of our diplomatic relationship with an agreement not to seek democracy, no. >> there will be talk on restoring dip attic relations. activists say that president obama has already given too much. and it's estimated that 150 million americans take some sort of diet ear supplements right? but according to new york's attorney general some of the more popular herbal supplements don't offer what the labels claim. >> i'm talking about these supplements, very popular you see them on store shelves across the country. the labels say st. john's ward and gingko bilboa, but some of them have neither of the herbs and they are filled instead with fillers which raises questions about the $33 billion

a year industry, since some of these supplements are still on store shelves. herbal supplements promise better health. but some are not at all what they claim to be. >> there was no organic material in the product. and in some cases there's sand. >> gnc walgreen's, and wal-mart, 80% of the time, they didn't have what was on the label. the new york times raised the question years ago. >> it was not just a few bad apples, so if you cannot buy supplements at gnc or walgreen's without being assured that what's on the label is actually in the pill, it's hard to have any faith in supplements. >> ginky bilboa didn't have any, but instead garlic, rice, spruce and asparagus. the same with target st. john's

wart. it did have garlic, rice, and a kind of house plant. and wal-mart's spring valley ginseng had no ginseng but it did have rice, pine, citrus, and that same house plant. >> to stay away from the vitamins and minerals to begin with they don't do what they want them to do, and we don't want to pay t. >> they demanded that the retailers pulled them from shelves, but the next day we went shopping and found them at two stores. >> ginky bilboa, and st. john's wart and ginseng still on the shelves here at gnc. >> but at walgreen's down the street, a different story. >> turns out that these are still on the shelf. but when i took them to the counter and tried to buy them, the clerk said that they have

been remained. >> target and wal-mart are pulling them from their websites. >> i'm upset about it. there's a reason i take it. >> they will pull the products, but they doubt the accuracy of the state's tests. it stands behind the purity and the potency. yet, it's a betrayal to some shoppers, who are watching their health and now they are feeling it in their wallets. >> if i found out that they had nothing in them for any health benefit, i would be frustrated because it's flushing money down the toilet. >> it's a call for more oversight. and it's up to the companies to make sure that the product is safe and accurately labeled but that depends on the honor

code. >> jeez, i'm spilling them. but it's only rice and sand. >> not what you think it is. >> and this stuff costs a lot of money. >> 20, $30 a bottle, some of them. >> jonathan, thank you. for decades african-american churches have been at the forefront of the civil rights movement. but many say that the church is on the wrong side of the struggle for rights for gays and lesbians. tonight, we look at the divide within the church. >> go around and tell those people. i'm not gay no more. i am delivered! >> reporter: when 21-year-old andrew caldwell stood before the church of christ and god in st. louis and told them that thanks to prayer, he was no longer gay the pastor and the congregation applauded. and as the video went viral walled itbrought to light the belief

that prayer can cure homosexuality. for 20 years, he has ministered to thousandses of black men and women who no longer want to be gay. the way that churches deal with homosexuality. many view it as a lifestyle choice, one condemned by the bible. the law that would legalize it. derek mccoy associate pastor in maryland, hit the main stage, campaigning against the law as the president of the maryland family alliance. >> today when we hear views like yours, many people are asking how can you feel this way? it feels bigoted or hypocritical or an entity that was part of the civil rights

movement or this way toward a minority group? >> it's an objective. there has never been a time in my life that i stood up and said man i can't wait to be bigoted toward another people. >> another pastor, said that it was time to speak out against the church's bias. >> if we changed the narrative of where the people were, and gave them the opportunity to raise their voices and show the public a different picture of a black clergy leader who says i support equal rights for gays and lesbians. >> but lgbt says that the divide between churches is great. and for many, the price for speaking up is too steep. >> and you can catch them at the new time, 7 p.m. pacific.

it's a sequel 50 years in the making. the woman responsible for the classic novel, to kill a mocking bird s. ready to publish her second book. >> harper lee is the author of one of the most beloved novels, to kill a mocking bird. she wrote it in the 1950s and until recently, she didn't know it existed. >> one book in the last 50 years, has been so warmly embraced by tens of millions of people. >> to kill a mocking bird. published in the 1950s, it was turned into a novel. it was harper lee's only published book. it has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and it still sells millions every year. it inspired a documentary. >> waiting for the next novel.

and sadly that never came. >> i can't imagine what drove her into silence. >> lee is now 88 years old but she won't be silent much longer. they will publish her new novel in july. >> i thought it was a hoax. >> go said the watchman will be publisheds 20 years after mocking bird left off. she wrote it before mocking bird but put it aside. in a statement she said, after much thought and hesitation, i put it in the hands of people i trust. and they said it's worthy of publication. i'm humbled and amazed that it will be published after all of these years. she will not do any publicity for her new book, she rarely speaks to the media. this was one of her few public appearances when she accepted

the presidential medal of freedom eight years ago. >> it's like getting a second look at the bible or something. this is an iconic work of american literature, and since it was a lost manuscript, it's nothing we ever expected to have. >> lee discovered the man you script last fall. and it was in a secure location. tony described it as a pretty decent effort. sounds humble to me. >> roxanna with us, and making babies with three people. the controversial treatment that took a major legal step forward today.

>> a new form of in vitro fertilization, would for the first time allow three people to be biological parents of the same child. goal is to protect parents from passing on diseases, but is it

ethical? >> reporter: this woman has passed on a mitochondrial disease to her daughter, lily. she died of heart failure. she has mitochondrial dna. and they give cells their energy. it would be compared to a cell's battery. >> the worst thing is not only being told that your child is going to die and there's no treatment, so just wait and see, but then to find out that subsequent children are more than likely going to be affected in the same way. it's just really really tough. >> the new treatment can break this desperate cycle. it's pioneers insist that it's safe. but controversial for some, it involves dna from three people. the mother's egg is fertilized with the father's sperm. and it has a vast majority of

inherited characteristics but the might rowcondria that surrounds are faulty and it passes on problems. in the new technique. the healthy nucleus is placed into a fertilized egg from a donor, which has healthy mitochondria. it's called a three person idea. opponents, including the church of england say that it opens the way to genetic engineering and designer babies, and some scientists are saying that not enough testing is done to see what kind of effects it might have and they are rushing into unscientific territory. >> i think that altering the genes of a child creating a new child, and essentially opening the way to determine the type of person who is born is a very difficult boundary to cross, and i will be voting against the regulations this afternoon. >> politicians know risks of

the treatment. but they also understand that on the cutting edge of science taking a calculated risk when the benefits are so clear is sometimes necessary. >> the yeas are 382 the nos to the left, 128. >> they voted overwhelmingly in favor, and the first child under this treatment could be born as early as next year. >> dr. robert cliffman is the director of the director of the bioethics program at columbia university. and what's your reaction to what the house of commons has done? >> i think it's an important step. there are hundreds of children born of terrible diseases, where they die of infants because of mutations in the mitochondria. so we could allow parents to have children, and not have their deadly mutations in the

mitochondria passed on. and i think that's a great thing. >> i need you -- i've heard a couple of explanations today. and explain to me how this works. >> so normally, you have, in the cell, there's a nucleus that has over 99% of our dna. and there's a little bit of the dna in these other things in the cell called mitoconnedria that were once bacteria, and they make energy for us. very rarely, there are mutations in the little bit of mitoconnedria and kids die as infants. so what we're able to do is take a mother who has a healthy nucleus, with the 99% of the dna, but she has the bad mitochondria, and we take the nucleus out and put it in another woman's egg, who has good mitochondria, and we have a sperm fertilize it, and we have a healthy child.

>> so the church of england is weighing in, and it says that it opens the way to genetic engineering, designer babies, so what's your response to this? >> so what we're doing is only treating people who have these deadly mutations in the mitochondria. we're not looking for people who have blond hair and blue eyes, or mutations. only one thing. i can go on a trip down the river or to the moon. and they're both trips but completely different things. so when people say this is genetic engineering and they are talking about people having five arms, it's a completely different things, it's getting rid of a dangerous mutation that's going to kill machine. >> but i hear people using the phraseology, slippery slope, 23

you can take out the bad mitochondrial dna what's to keep them from altering the physical appearance of children. >> this is in the 99% dna. we have no way of altering the dna in the nucleus and not in the mitochondria. all we can do is remove the bad mitochondria and put in good. it's no different than saying, i have someone else's kidney in me so i'm really two people. that's more of the analogy. it's more of a transplant, like an organ transplant. to say i have someone else's heart in me. >> can you imagine the u.s. congress passing any legislation of the nature that was passed bit house of commons? >> one of two things. all that the house of commons passed today is to allow research on this technique. they're not saying --

>> there's a lot more work to be done. >> it's just, will this work, is this something that we should explore? i would hope that the fda would do the same thing. >> thank you for watching and john seigenthaler is next.

>> hi, ern, this is aljazeera america, i'm john seigenthaler. >> isil's horror, a captured pilot burned alive. tonight, jordan promises an earth shaking response. argentina scandal. new evidence implicates that country's president. new crackdown on supplements. prosecutors say what's on the label is often not in the bottle. and harper lee.