With the passage of laws allowing the creation of three-parent babies in the United Kingdom, a new chapter in parenting is about to open. Our traditional definition of mother-father-children families that have been stretched in the recent past will now be stretched even further.
Mitochondrial replacement IVF (mtIVF) is not a treatment for the people who suffer from any of the mitochondrial diseases. All it does is allow a person with mitochondrial disease to have a healthy baby.
Although opponents have said they will continue to fight against the new law, claiming it raises too many safety and ethical concerns, Prime Minister David Cameron was optimistic about the vote.
“We're not playing god here, we're just making sure that two parents who want a healthy baby can have one,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
The procedure
The procedure, and the concept behind it, is a fairly simple one. If the mother has a disease carried in her mitochondrial DNA, the doctors remove and replace the diseased mitochondria with healthy ones from a donor.
It can be done either prior to fertilization by removing the nucleus of an unhealthy egg and implanting it into a healthy donor egg, or after fertilization by removing the fertilized nucleus from the mother’s egg, implanting it into a healthy egg and then transplanting the egg back into the mother to gestate.
The controversy
Although the procedure seems simple enough, there are questions of ethics involved in it, not only in its current form, but also in the future of parenthood or using an effective paternity test. The first controversy is about the genetic makeup of the baby created using mtIVF. Approximately 0.1 percent of the DNA in the baby will be from the second woman. Although it may not seem like much, the change is permanent and will be passed down through generations.
Additionally, the scientist who created the technique is seeking permission to use the procedure as a fertility treatment for older women.
“Compared to a rare condition like mitochondrial disease, infertility is a big, big problem for modern society because of women delaying their first baby. When they finally decide, the delay has already affected their egg quality,” said Dr. Mitalipov of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland to the Independent.
The future
Genetic manipulation to cure disease will be used as a gateway to enhance life. If the procedure is safe for someone suffering from mitochondrial disease, the argument to withhold the same treatment because of age will be difficult to argue.
“If the technique is safe enough for it to be used for the one purpose, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be safe enough to use for the other,” said John Harris, professor of bioethics at Manchester University. “Objectors say once you start making alterations, even a very tiny part of the mitochondria, then this will open the door to more radical genetic engineering and designer babies.”
Until the ramifications of the procedure are known, for everyone involved, it will remain a controversial therapy that may change the way we think about parenting and families.