It takes three to tango.

The UK has become the first country to back using the DNA from three different individuals during IVF to produce one healthy baby. But could it be crossing an important ethical line?

Later this year regulations will be drafted in the UK which will allow a three-person IVF to be legalized. This three-way IVF could be an important measure for preventing fatal mitochondrial diseases from being passed on from mother to child. Now here's where it gets complicated, so let me try and explain. 

As most of us should know, during fertilization the male sperm joins with the female egg. This means that the genetic information that a child contains should be split 50:50 between their mother and their father. However, the mother also contributes something else to their child; their mitochondria. Mitochondria are tiny organelles within each of our cells and are considered the 'energy factories' that give our body energy. These mitochondria contain their own DNA which differs from the rest of the cell. It is this DNA within the mitochondria which can be passed on to the embryo, and if this DNA is defective, the embryo is starved from the crucial energy it needs which in severe cases can cause death. 

The problem of defective mitochondrial DNA is more common than you might think, with 1 in every 6,500 babies born affected. With this treatment, the DNA from the father can join with the DNA of the mother, but with the mitochondrial DNA coming from a third partner. This would lead to a child being born that has inherited most of its DNA from its parents, but a tiny amount from a third party. 

The logistics of this involves fertilizing two eggs with the same sperm, one from the mother, and one from a donor. This would leave two fertilized cells, one with defective mitochondria, and the other with healthy mitochondria. At this point, the nucleus from the mother would be removed from it's defective cellular environment and be placed into the fertilized healthy mitochondrial cell, which has also had it's nucleus removed. 

This treatment will allow numerous families to have healthy children who would have previously been unable to. 

Many would think that the only ethical thing to do at this time would be to introduce this life saving treatment globally, to help those who are in the biggest need of it. However, there are others within the community who believe that this treatment may cross the ethical line. They believe that this puts us on a slippery slope towards producing designer babies, and that this treatment will have an impact on future generations, who will inherit this mixmatch of DNA. 

Do you approve of the UK's actions? Or do you think this research should be banned under ethical issues? Write below with your comments or questions and sign up for email notifications of every time i publish a post.