3-parent IVF babies: What next?

Controversial technique could prevent the inheritance of genetic diseases
The Straits Times, 5 Feb 2015

LONDON - Despite warnings that a new ethical threshold was being crossed, lawmakers have voted in favour of Britain becoming the first country in the world to allow a "three-parent" IVF technique that could prevent the inheritance of genetic diseases.

"We're not playing God here, we're just making sure that two parents who want a healthy baby can have one," said Prime Minister David Cameron, who supported the move, according to the BBC.

After an emotionally charged 90-minute debate on Tuesday that some lawmakers criticised as being too short for such a serious matter, Parliament voted 382 to 128 in favour of the technique, called mitochondrial donation.

Health Minister Jane Ellison argued in favour of legalising the procedure that will help women with mitochondrial diseases, describing it as "bold" but "considered and informed".

International charities, advocacy groups and scientists had urged Britain to pass laws to allow the treatment, saying it brought a "first glimmer of hope" to some families of having a baby who could live without suffering.

"We have finally reached a milestone in giving women an invaluable choice, the choice to become a mother without fear of passing on a lifetime under the shadow of mitochondrial disease to their child," Mr Robert Meadowcroft, chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said following the vote.

If it wins final approval, as seems likely, the technique is expected to be used only sparingly, and in the cases of women with defective mitochondria, which can lead to brain damage, heart failure and muscular dystrophy.

The technique combines the nucleus DNA from the parents but mitochondrial DNA from a female donor.

Scientists say that the child would inherit the characteristics of the parents, other than the mitochondrial defect, rather than the donor's.

The issue provoked fierce debate, with critics fearing it would lead to the creation of genetically modified designer babies.

Conservative lawmaker Fiona Bruce said it would amount to letting "the genie out of the bottle".

"Where will it lead? The answer has to be that we stop here. The answer has to be that we say this is a red line in our country, as in every other country in the world, that we will not cross," she said during the debate.

Mr Edward Leigh, a Conservative lawmaker and former minister, said: "We should ask ourselves why no other state - not the European Union, not the US yet - thinks this process is absolutely safe."

Bishop John Sherrington of the Catholic Church in England and Wales said in a statement that there are "serious ethical objections to this procedure which involves the destruction of human embryos".

The Church of England argued that there should be "more time for consultation and research" while adding that the church did not want to prevent people "from benefiting from a major advance in genetics and assisted reproduction".

NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS

NOT PLAYING GOD

We're not playing God here, we're just making sure that two parents who want a healthy baby can have one.

- Prime Minister David Cameron, who supported the move

Key dates in embryonic research

1978: Louise Brown, the first baby conceived via in-vitro fertilisation, is born.

1989: First pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) used to screen embryos for cystic fibrosis.

1990s: PGD used to detect more than 250 inherited disorders, including sickle cell anaemia, Tay-Sachs disease and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

2000: First "saviour sibling" born, to donate healthy cells to a sibling with Fanconi anaemia.

2010: British scientists create a lab-dish embryo whose mitochondrial DNA comes from a donor.

The rest of its DNA comes from its biological parents.

2013: Birth of Connor, the first baby to be born after all its chromosomes were screened for abnormalities, so as to select the healthiest embryo for implantation.

2015: Vote in British Parliament on whether to approve embryos that have donated mitochondrial DNA.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE



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* Britain first country to legalise three-parent gene therapy
Decision a 'cautious go-ahead'; treatment not foolproof and is like 'playing God', say critics
The Straits Times, 16 Dec 2016

LONDON • Britain's fertility regulator gave the green light yesterday for the country to become the first in the world to legally offer "three-parent baby" fertility treatments, reported newswire agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

British MPs had voted in February to allow the creation of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) babies with DNA from three people, but clinics needed the approval of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) before introducing the treatment.

The technique would allow women who carry disease-causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to give birth to genetically related children free of mitochondrial disease.

HFEA chair Sally Cheshire called the decision to let clinics offer mitochondrial gene therapy "historic and important" and "a world first".

"I'm sure patients who might be in line for this treatment will be really pleased by what we've decided today," she said, but added: "We will proceed with caution." She said the decision was "about cautious go- ahead, not gung-ho go-ahead" and there was still a "long way to go".

According to AFP, an independent panel of experts last month said the practice should be "cautiously adopted" to prevent certain genetic diseases from being passed on to future generations.

Mitochondria are structures in cells which generate vital energy and contain their own set of genes called mDNA which is passed through the mother.

Mitochondrial diseases cause symptoms ranging from poor vision to diabetes and muscle wasting. Health officials estimate that an average of 125 babies are born with the mutations in Britain every year.

According to The Independent news site, the procedure is carried out by transferring the parents' genetic material that effectively encodes a baby's identity to a donor egg whose own nuclear DNA has been removed.

In theory, mitochondrial replacement can not only prevent a child from developing inherited diseases, but also protect future generations.

Critics say the technique is not foolproof and small numbers of faulty mitochondria may still be "carried over" into the child, and even replicate in the developing embryo, said The Independent.

Others believe the procedure is tantamount to genetic modification of humans or even "playing God".

Some religious people have qualms about assisted reproductive techniques because they believe that a fertilised egg constitutes a distinct human life, and consider the discarding or destruction of embryos in the process to be unacceptable.

Earlier attempts at using three-parent techniques to treat infertility or genetic disorders in the 1990s were called off for medical reasons, when miscarriages or developmental disabilities arose.

The scientific community was also concerned that the unusual genetic code of a female child with three parents' DNA could be passed down to her own children and subsequent generations.

Earlier this year, a Jordanian couple became the first to produce a healthy baby boy using this procedure, after undergoing the gene therapy in Mexico.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE