Critics warn that tweaking the genetic code this way could be a slippery slope that eventually leads to designer babies for parents
, scientists take genetic material from her egg or embryo, which is then transferred into a donor egg or embryo that still has healthy mitochondria but had the rest of its key DNA removed.
"Mitochondrial donation treatment offers families with severe inherited mitochondrial illness the possibility of a healthy child," the U.K. fertility regulator said in a statement Wednesday. The agency said it was still "early days" but it hoped the scientists involved, at Newcastle University, would soon publish details of the treatment.Britain requires every woman undergoing the treatment to receive approval from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.
Others warn that tweaking the genetic code this way could be a slippery slope that eventually leads to designer babies for parents who not only want to avoid inherited diseases but to have taller, stronger, smarter or better-looking children.Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research center in London, said it would be critical to monitor the babies' future development.
Scientists in Europe published research earlier this year that showed in some cases, the small number of abnormal mitochondria that are inevitably carried over from the mother's egg to the donor's can reproduce when the baby is in the uterus, which could ultimately lead to a genetic disease.
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