Scientists cautiously OK novel form of genetic engineering

An elite panel of scientists and bioethicists Wednesday offered guarded approval of a novel form of genetic engineering that could prevent congenital diseases but would result in babies with genetic material from three parents.

The panel, which was convened last year at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said that it is ethically permissible to “go forward, but with caution” with mitochondrial replacement techniques, or MRT.

The new clinical procedures should be used rarely, with extreme care and abundant government oversight, and initially applied only to male embryos, concluded the committee, which delivered its findings at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

The new report comes at a time of dazzling advances in genetic engineering and a commensurate struggle to understand the ethics of “playing God,” a phrase invoked twice Wednesday by committee member R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin.

The FDA last year asked the Institute of Medicine to review the ethical implications of this genetic engineering, whichwould result in what has been loosely referred to as “three parent babies.” British officials have already approved investigatory experiments involving the technique.