Friday, April 16, 2010
Within three years, children born in the United Kingdom could have three biological parents, assuming the government goes along with an idea pushed by scientists to perform gene splicing to prevent serious health risks.
The concept has been developed by researchers at Newcastle University who say the merger of DNA from two fertilized eggs, each from a different woman, could correct faulty mitochondria that leads to heart, liver, neurological and muscle conditions. The procedure would create children having genetic material from three parents, with the mother and father supplying 99.8% of DNA and the remainder coming from another woman, the mitochondrial donor.
British government officials would first have to change current law that forbids placing embryos that have been altered in this way inside a womb.
Approximately one out of 200 children is born each year in the UK with genetic mutations in their mitochondria, although in most cases the defective DNA does not cause life-threatening health problems.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Babies with Three Parents May Be Key to Preventing Genetic Disorders (by Mark Henderson, Times of London)
Freeing Human Eggs of Mutant Mitochondria (by Alla Katsnelson, Nature)
Transplant Creates Embryos with Three Parents (by Roger Highfield, Telegraph)
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