WIKIMEDIA, KENNY LOUIEWeeks after the UK House of Commons voted in favor of allowing fertility clinics to employ in vitro fertilization (IVF) methods called mitochondrial replacement techniques to produce embryos with genetic material from three parents, the House of Lords followed suit yesterday (February 24), approving changes to existing laws that will allow the techniques.
Mitochondrial replacement uses ooctyes from two women and sperm from one man, and can be used to create offspring with reduced chances of inheriting mitochondrial disorders from their parents. “Families who know what it is like to care for a child with a devastating disease are the people best placed to decide whether mitochondrial donation is the right option for them,” Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, told The Guardian. “Parliament is to be commended for a considered and compassionate decision to give these families that choice, with proper safeguards under the U.K.’s internationally-admired regulatory system.”
Britain is the first country to permit the treatment, which was developed by scientists at the Newcastle University. Now, the U.K.’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will ...
