UK grants go-ahead for 3-parent children
Print Edition
BRITAIN’S fertility regulator yesterday granted doctors the first UK license to create babies using a three-parent IVF technique designed to prevent inherited genetic diseases.
The license, granted to a team of doctors in Newcastle, northern England, means the first child created in Britain using the mitochondrial pronuclear transfer technique could be born by the end of this year.
Critics of the treatment say it is a dangerous step that will lead to the creation of genetically modified “designer babies.” But the medical team at the Newcastle Fertility Center said they were delighted with the decision “to help families affected by these devastating diseases.”
“Many years of research have led to the development of pronuclear transfer as a treatment to reduce the risk of mothers transmitting disease to their children,” said Mary Herbert, a professor of Reproductive Biology at the center.
“It’s a great testament to the regulatory system here in the UK that research innovation can be applied in treatment.”
The technique involves intervening in the fertilization process to remove mitochondria, which act as tiny energy-generating batteries inside cells, and which — if faulty — can cause fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy.
The treatment is known as “three-parent” IVF because the babies, born from genetically modified embryos, would have DNA from a mother, a father and from a female donor.
It is designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases — incurable conditions passed down the maternal line that affect one in 6,500 children.
Britain’s parliament last year changed the law to allow the treatments if and when they were ready for licensing. But the regulator, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, must still approve each clinic and each patient before treatment.
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