UK considers legalizing controversial three-parent in-vitro fertilization procedure
Babies with three biological parents have been achieved before, but 2015 may see government support and legal status for three-parent IVF procedure in the UK
In the late 1990’s scientists in the USA artificially fertilized an egg-cell with DNA from three parents in a process known as cytoplasmic transfer, which, following the birth of a healthy child (a teenager today) with three biological parents, quickly became banned.
However, a modified technique of IVF-fertilization which effectively amounts to the same thing, a child with three biological parents, may soon become legal in the UK. The new technique is a form of mitochondrial donation in which genetic material from the eggs of two women, combined with the sperm of one man, is used to produce IVF embryos free of mitochondrial diseases, which are inherited maternally and include ailments such as sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and cancer. The procedure effectively stops the conditions in their tracks, and prevents the mother from passing them on to her child.
The mitochondrial DNA constitutes only 0,01% of the genetic material in a human being, which means that a child conceived with this technique will inherit the vast majority of her genetic coding from her two ‘ordinary’ parents, while the mitochondrial DNA from the donor mother simply replaces a minute amount of defect mitochondrial DNA in the egg-cell.
However, this will undeniably still mean that the embryo has three distinct and identifiable biological parents; a point of great philosophical, social, and, not least, ethical concern, which falls squarely within the posthuman field of interest. Supporters of the procedure, along with the UK Department of Health, considers the technique a form of “germ-line therapy” with great potential health benefits, while critics regard it as a dangerous legitimization of a slippery slope of genetic manipulation, selection and ‘designer children’.
The regulation changes are expected to be voted on before the general election in May 2015. If passed, the UK will be the first country to legalize three-parent IVF.
For further reading, see the following newspaper articles:
The Independent, 4th of January 2015: “Exclusive: Three-parent IVF treatment to be legal within weeks”
BBC News, 31st of August 2014: “The girl with three biological parents”
The Telegraph, 27th of February 2014: “’Three-parent babies’ could be born in Britain next year”
And in the following brief (Danish) radio discussion of the problem from a philosophical perspective:
P1 Morgen [P1 Morning], 23rd of December 2014: http://www.dr.dk/radio/ondemand/p1/p1-morgen-901/#!/02:07:19