Britain first country to approve ‘three-parent’ babies

LONDON: Britain is set to become the first country in the world to legally offer ‘ three-parent baby’ fertility treatments after regulators gave the green light.

The technique, which uses DNA from two women and a man, would allow mothers who carry disease- causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to give birth to children free of the illness.

British lawmakers had voted in February to allow the treatment, which uses in-vitro fertilisation ( IVF), but clinics needed to obtain licences from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ( HFEA).

HFEA chair Sally Cheshire hailed the ‘historic and important’ decision to license the treatment, calling it ‘a world fi rst’.

“I’m sure patients who might be in line for this treatment will be really pleased by what we’ve decided today,” she said, but added: “We will proceed with caution.”

HFEA member Andrew Greenfield said the board took the decision because the “evidence suggests we should move forward”.

An independent panel of experts last month said the practice should be ‘cautiously adopted’ to prevent certain genetic diseases from being passed on to future generations.

Mitochondria are structures in cells which generate vital energy and contain their own set of genes called mDNA which is passed through the mother.

Mitochondrial diseases cause symptoms ranging from poor vision to diabetes and muscle wasting, and health officials estimate around 125 babies are born with the mutations in Britain every year.

The fi rst baby conceived using mitochondrial donation was born earlier this year in Mexico, where there are no rules on its use, but Britain is the first to officially authorise it. Greenfield said the Mexico birth was “encouraging but only a single case, so let’s not get carried away”.

Opponents have warned that the move paves the way for ‘designer babies’. — AFP