According to the British "Daily Mail" news on the 10th, the birth of the first three-parent baby in the UK marks a breakthrough in vitro fertilization technology.
A three-parent baby is one in which the baby contains DNA information from three people, which is usually the case with mitochondrial donation therapy.
The birth of this three-parent baby marked a breakthrough in IVF technology
Mitochondria are essential "engines" in human cells to provide energy to the body. However, some women have mitochondrial defects, which means that their eggs have problems with the mitochondria and may be passed on to their children through childbirth. Babies with mitochondrial genetic disorders may have a range of mitochondrial diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, which can lead to stunted growth, muscle weakness, learning disabilities, and premature death.
Using mitochondrial donation therapy, sperm and defective eggs are first combined outside the body. A healthy woman donates a mitochondrial normal egg, and then transfers the genetic material from the defective fertilized egg into the normal egg that has been combined by both parents to form a healthy fertilized egg, which is finally placed in the mother's uterus. In this way, the embryo will contain the genes of three people: father, mother and donor. The babies born in this way are three-parent babies.
Genetically, a three-parent baby will have two mothers, but the "mother" who donates mitochondria is less genetically linked to the child. It is reported that the two "mothers" of the three-parent baby know each other, and the mother asked a friend to be a mitochondrial donor.
For mitochondrial donation treatment, public opinion is mixed. Proponents argue that for women with mitochondrial defects, the technology could help them have healthy children. Opponents argue that this is a disguised genetic modification that is not in line with medical ethics. If mitochondria can be replaced, does that mean that other DNA information can be replaced to "engineer" humans?
In addition, some opponents say that in some countries, the technology is not only used to prevent mitochondrial disease inheritance, but also to use other women's DNA to make infertile women pregnant. This is obviously extremely controversial.
There are also experts who worry that this repeated transplantation may affect gene expression and cause the child to develop other diseases.
Due to the above controversy, the technology is not legal in many countries and regions. The UK legalized it in 2015, making it the first country in the world to legalize the technology. Currently, mitochondrial donation therapy is legally available in countries such as Mexico and Ukraine, giving birth to three-parent babies.
Previously, the world's first and only certified three-parent baby was born in Mexico in 2016. The UK is the second case.
In 2016, Mexico gave birth to the world's first three-parent baby, a doctor named John Chang
Peter Thompson, chief executive of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HEFA), said mitochondrial donation treatments offered families with inherited mitochondrial defects the possibility of having healthy babies. He stressed that the UK's monitoring system is robust to ensure that the technology is used in a safe and ethical manner.
Jiupai News Intern Reporter Li Yawen
[Source: Jiupai News]
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