Top doc supports 3-parent method

BRITAIN may allow a controversial technique to create babies using DNA from three people, a move that would help couples avoid passing on rare genetic diseases, the country’s top medical officer says.

The new techniques help women with faulty mitochondria, the energy source in a cell, from passing on to their babies defects that can result in such diseases as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and mental retardation.

About one in 200 children is born every year in Britain with a mitochondrial disorder.

For a woman with faulty mitochondria, scientists take only the healthy genetic material from her egg or embryo.

They then transfer that into a donor egg or embryo that still has its healthy mitochondria but has had the rest of its key DNA removed.

The fertilised embryo is then transferred into the womb of the mother.

“Scientists have developed groundbreaking new procedures which could stop these diseases being passed on,” Britain’s chief medical officer, Dr Sally Davies, said.

Such treatments are only allowed for research in Britain. If lawmakers agree, the UK would become the first country in the world where the technique could be used to create babies. – Sapa-AP