MPs have voted in favour of the creation of babies with DNA[*] from two women and one man, in an historic move. The UK is now set to become the first country to introduce laws to allow the creation of babies from three people.
In a free vote in the Commons, 382 MPs were in favour and 128 against the technique that stops genetic diseases being passed from mother to child. During the debate, ministers said the technique was "light at the end of a dark tunnel" for families.
A further vote is required in the House of Lords. If everything goes ahead then the first such baby could be born next year.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31069173
[Additional Coverage]: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26906-uk-parliament-gives-threeparent-ivf-the-goahead.html
[*] Editor's Note: Contrary to many media reports, this is not a "three-parent" situation. The law identifies that there is a woman donor who provides an egg (from which the chromosomal DNA is removed and whose mitochondrial DNA will remain) and then two parents: another woman (the mother) whose chromosomal DNA is implanted in the donor egg, and a man (the father) who donates the sperm.)
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The BBC reports that three-person IVF will soon be legal in the United Kingdom. The procedure involves replacing mitochondrial DNA in an embryo from that of a second woman in order to eliminate deadly mitochondrial genetic disorders. Alana Saarinen was successfully conceived in the U.S. using the procedure back in 2000, but the FDA banned ooplasm transfer in 2001.
The UK has now become the first country to approve laws to allow the creation of babies from three people. The modified version of IVF has passed its final legislative obstacle after being approved by the House of Lords. The fertility regulator will now decide how to license the procedure to prevent babies inheriting deadly genetic diseases. The first baby could be born as early as 2016. A large majority of MPs in the House of Commons approved "three-person babies" earlier this month. The House of Lords tonight rejected an attempt to block the plan by a majority of 232. Estimates suggest 150 couples would be suitable to have babies through the technique each year.
Additional coverage at Wired UK and The Guardian.
Related: UK Parliament Gives Three-"Source" IVF the Go-Ahead.
Singapore could become the second country to legalize mitochondrial replacement therapy
This small city state could become the second country—after the United Kingdom—to explicitly legalize mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), a controversial assisted reproduction technique that allows women who are carriers of some rare genetic disorders to give birth to healthy babies.
Members of the Singaporean public and religious groups have until 15 June to provide their feedback about MRT to the Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC). Based on its findings, a 13-member BAC review committee will make formal recommendations to the government later this year about whether to legalize the technology.
"Our position is to keep a close watch on what happens in the U.K., to track the U.K. experience, and to learn from what they have done," says Oi Lian Kon, who studies human genetics at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and is leading the BAC review group.
MRT is used to address devastating genetic diseases that arise from abnormalities in the DNA in mitochondria, the cell's power sources, and that commonly affect energy-intensive organs such as the brain and heart, as well as muscles. Children inherit mitochondria only from their mothers; replacing faulty mitochondria in an egg or embryo with normal ones from a donor can result in healthy babies. But it also means that offspring will bear DNA from three "parents," which makes MRT a controversial procedure.
Previously: UK Parliament Gives Three-"Source" IVF the Go-Ahead.
Approval for Three-Parent Embryo Trials
UK's Fertility Regulator Approves Creation of First "Three-Parent" Babies
Related: U.S. Panel Gives Tentative Endorsement to Three-Person IVF
Newcastle University Study Verifies Safety of Three-Person IVF
First Three-Person Baby Born Using Spindle Nuclear Transfer
Baby Girl Born in Ukraine Using Three-Parent Pronuclear Transfer Technique
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Synonymous Homonym on Wednesday February 04 2015, @07:22AM
I am surprised this needs to be debated and legalized by the legislative body.
Is everything there illegal until declared otherwise?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday February 04 2015, @08:07AM
Helps it the rules are set up ahead of time. Especially since sperm donors can be sued for child support [cnn.com].
As far as the child is concerned, once they are here, they are human, and the details of the journey no longer matter.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04 2015, @08:17AM
Helps it the rules are set up ahead of time.
ahead of time
It has been over 36 years since the first artificial human was born! And they are debating this particular variant just now!
Especially since sperm donors can be sued for child support.
Which part of Kansas is the UK?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday February 04 2015, @09:54AM
We don't know yet, but TPP [huffingtonpost.com] will soon be out in the daylight.
(and don't bother tell me UK is over the Atlantic pond, it will reach UK pretty soon coming on the other side).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Informative) by theluggage on Wednesday February 04 2015, @10:19AM
Is everything there illegal until declared otherwise?
No - but government regulation of in-vitro fertilisation was introduced years ago [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday February 04 2015, @07:58AM
Re the Editor's note: mitochondrial DNA is every bit as important as chromosomal DNA, both for survival and legal issues.
In fact, female linage can be traced farther back via mitochondrial DNA more reliably than chromosomal DNA.
The choice as to which to assign as the mother is purely arbitrary.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday February 04 2015, @08:21AM
The choice as to which to assign as the mother is purely arbitrary.
Hardly. mtDNA makes up something like 0.05% (by gene count, and much less by base pair count) of your total genetic makeup and has no effect on the external signs of inheritance, nor many of the internal ones like blood type (I think). Nor does it get passed down the male line, so it certainly wouldn't be "every bit as important" when it comes to a paternity test and such.
Cousins may or may not share the same mtDNA as one of their grandmothers, but no-one considers them to be closer cousins if they do.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04 2015, @03:15PM
If mitochondrial DNA were so insignificant, why do you think this procedure was invented to prevent genetic disease in the baby? Don't draw such a silly distinction over whether this makes 3 people "parents" or not. 3 people contribute their genes: female #1 with her mitochondrial genes, female #2 with her nuclear genes, and the male with his nuclear genes. Think of it as a science lesson that shows genetics are more complicated than most laypeople know.
Now, who gets what claims to the resulting embryo, later baby, is a legal issue to be decided. It has nothing to do with science.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday February 04 2015, @03:33PM
The 'donor' is and remains anonymous, in much the same way as any other organ donor is in the UK. She has no legal claim to the embryo/child because she will not know that her mtDNA has been used, nor will the 'natural' parents know who the donor is. That is part of the reason that it had to go before Parliament - it resolves issues like this before they can even arise.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Open4D on Wednesday February 04 2015, @04:46PM
Opponents of the technique are trying to popularize the term "three-parent baby" because they believe it has more negative connotations.
At the very least, the term should be "three-genetic-parent baby". The word "parent" has an order of magnitude more connotations than the term "genetic parent". I know who my parents are. I presume they are also my genetic parents, but I've never actually asked - because I don't care.
But even that term doesn't get across the point others have made about how little significance the '3rd genetic parent' has in the issues we normally think of with regards to being a biological parent. It's a bit like if 2 architects collaborated on a innovative new building, you wouldn't generally also mention Nikola Tesla even though he could be considered responsible for the fact that the building's electricity supply is Alternating Current.
(Score: 3, Informative) by nicdoye on Wednesday February 04 2015, @09:48AM
According to The Telegraph [telegraph.co.uk] Britain is the first country to legalise this procedure.
I code because I can
(Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Wednesday February 04 2015, @04:22PM
True, though the procedure has already been done [bbc.co.uk] in the US, before the FDA banned it.
A year ago there was a discussion here in response to news of the FDA's latest hearings on the matter: Mitochondrial DNA Manipulation and Ethics [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Wednesday February 04 2015, @03:28PM
Isaac Asimov wrote a novel [wikipedia.org] in 1972 about children produced by three parents, but they were aliens with a radically different biology than Earth, and that planet's inhabitants had three rather than two sexes. I'm pretty sure Dr. Asimov thought the idea of three sexes to be far fetched, since he was a biochemist.
I don't know of any sci-fi that explores the actual science here, though. The closest I've seen was Heinlein's Jerry Was a Man [willmorgan.org] published in 1947. Can anyone point me to one?
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Archon V2.0 on Wednesday February 04 2015, @04:48PM
Unfortunately dispensationalist hacks Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins also wrote a novel about a kid with three parents. Because Teh Ghey will spawn the Antichrist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_(LaHaye_novel) [wikipedia.org]