This time scientists have gone too far

WE ARE told that it was a great day for science, evidence of man’s brilliance and mastery over nature.

But news this week that Newcastle University has been given the green light to create the world’s first three-parent babies left me feeling very uncertain.

The technique is a type of IVF where the DNA from two women and one man are combined to avoid certain — rare — genetic conditions inherited from one of the women.

The embryo has DNA from a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm, but defective DNA in the egg’s mitochondria — the powerhouses within cells — is replaced with a second woman’s DNA, creating an baby with genetic material of three parents.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority has given this technique the go-ahead, and we are all supposed to embrace this brave new world — but I can’t quite celebrate.

I have great sympathy for those who have mitochondrial-related diseases, but this makes me feel uneasy. Merely expressing this is denounced as antediluvian, but I am a man of science and my hesitation is not a result of a Luddite attitude.

Generally, scientists push medicine forward with the best intentions to help humanity.

But this advance is rewriting the basic principles that underpin biology, meddling in things we don’t know enough about.

When I was training as a psychiatrist, it was impressed on us that we should learn to trust our instinct more. This is one of those times when we should listen to our gut, even when we can’t put our finger on why.