A baby created using the controversial “three-parent” technique has been born in Mexico, making it the first time the procedure has been implemented successfully, reported The Independent.
Very limited details about the birth have been released so far. Critics of the technique say it is like “playing God”. But those in favour point out that the technique allows mothers with a particular genetic disease to have perfectly healthy children that are biologically related to them.
The baby is now five months old and has Jordanian parents. The mother has Leigh’s syndrome, a fatal disorder that affects the development of the nervous system. It passes on to the child in the mitochondrial DNA.
Although the mother is healthy, two children she had previously given birth to died: one at the age of six, and the other while still a eight-month baby.
There are multiple ways to carry out this technique.
The one used in this case involved taking a a nucleus from one of the eggs of the mother (which had her DNA) and implanted it into a donor egg. The donor egg had its nucleus removed but retained the donor’s healthy mitochondrial DNA.
While ordinary DNA has the genetic information that gives us our physical and genetic make-up, mitochondrial DNA provides power for the cell.
The term “three-parent” baby has been disputed by scientists as the significant DNA for the baby still comes from two people.
Source: The Independent