Human genetic engineering clears hurdle
MPs approve procedure that could protect some children from inherited diseases
LONDON — Britain’s House of Commons gave preliminary approval Tuesday to permitting scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people, a technique that could protect some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
The bill still needs approval by the House of Lords — and a further Commons vote on any amendments — before becoming law. If so, it would make Britain the first nation to allow embryos to be genetically modified.
Britain has long been a leader in reproductive technology; the world’s first baby from in vitro fertilization, Louise Brown, was born in the U.K. in 1978.
The vote in the House of Commons was 382-128 in favour. No date has been set for debate in the House of Lords, but it is expected to be in the next few weeks.
It would be unusual for it to reject legislation passed overwhelmingly in the Commons.
The contentious techniques — which aim to prevent mothers from passing on inherited diseases — involve altering a human egg or embryo before transferring it into the mother. Critics fear these techniques could lead to the creation of “designer babies.”
Defects in the mitochondria can result in diseases including muscular dystrophy, heart, kidney and liver failure and severe muscle weakness.
In the House of Commons, Health Minister Jane Ellison said the legislation is “a bold step to take, but it is a considered and informed step.”
Some say the techniques cross a fundamental scientific boundary, since the changes made to the embryos will be passed on to future generations.
“(This is) about protecting children from the severe health risks of these unnecessary techniques and protecting everyone from the eugenic designer-baby future that will follow from this,” said David King, director of the secular watchdog group Human Genetics Alert.
The techniques would likely be used only in about a dozen British women every year who have faulty mitochondria, the energy- producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus, according to Britain’s Department of Health.
The technique involves removing the nucleus DNA from the egg of a prospective mother and inserting it into a donor egg from which the nucleus DNA has been removed. This can be done before or after fertilization. The resulting embryo would have the nucleus DNA from its parents but the mitochondrial DNA from the donor.
Rachel Kean, whose aunt suffered from mitochondrial disease and had several miscarriages and stillbirths, said she hoped British politicians would approve the techniques.
Kean, an activist for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said her mother is also a carrier of mitochondrial disease.
“Knowing that you could bring a child into this world for a short, painful life of suffering is not something I would want to do,” she said.
Lisa Jardine, who chaired a review into the techniques conducted by Britain’s fertility regulator, said each case would be under close scrutiny and that doctors would track children born using this technique and their future offspring.
“Every medical procedure ultimately carries a small risk,” Jardine said, pointing out that the first baby created using in vitro fertilization was the product of an experiment with unproven methods.