Researchers Recommend Approving 3-Parent Babies For Boys Only

Three-parent babies is a topic under scrutiny and criticism, not unlike genetically modified human embryos. Under request by the U.S. FDA, the Institute of Medicine has evaluated the notion of three-parent babies and has now published its report. In it, the Institute of Medicine recommends that in cases where there's risk of mitochondrial diseases, three-parent babies should be allowed. But only if the babies produced are boys.

The issue concerns mitochondrial replacement therapy, which would allow women to have mitochondria from their eggs swapped out with that from a healthy donor. This would allow them to sidestep the potential risk of diseases that may be present, but would also result in a baby that has three parents instead of two.

The United Kingdom has already given the go-ahead for MRT, and it does not come with gender restriction. The Institute for Medicine has recommended that only male babies be allowed under three-parent arrangements, preventing the donor mitochondria from being passed on to the three-parent baby's own future children.

Says the report, in part:

While MRTs, if effective, could satisfy a desire of women seeking to have a genetically related child without the risk of passing on mtDNA disease, the technique raises significant ethical and social issues. It would create offspring who have genetic material from two women, something never sanctioned in humans, and would create mitochondrial changes that could be heritable (in female offspring), and therefore passed on in perpetuity. The manipulation would be performed on eggs or embryos, would affect every cell of the resulting individual, and once carried out this genetic manipulation is not reversible.

Whether U.S. officials will agree with the male-only recommendation is yet to be seen.

SOURCE: New Scientist