The United Kingdom recently became the first country to allow the creation of children with the DNA of three parents in February. At the House Commons, Lawmakers voted in favor of, with the majority of 254 votes, allowing in-vitro fertilization involving two women and one man. This law is directed towards families trying to prevent diseases being inherited by mothers with defective mitochondria to their sons.
With the help of another, healthy female donor, "the [in-vitro fertilization] technique leaves the resulting baby with 0.1 percent" of healthy mitochondrial DNA which is surprisingly enough to thwart off any disabling or deadly diseases caused by defective mitochondrial DNA from the main female donor. (Discovery News, 2015)This healthy DNA could then be passed onto this baby's future offspring.
Although this is obviously beneficial to any future parents afraid of passing on any detrimental diseases, this is still a controversial topic as there are still some who oppose to this recent ruling. Some say that this is a gateway into creating "'designer babies," or children who's traits are selected by the parents based on looks, intelligence, or other traits. (Discovery News, 2015) These people are definitely fans of the movie Gattaca. Other opposers include the church who "who objects to the destruction of embryos that inevitably comes with [in-vitro fertilization]." (Discovery News, 2015) While there are still opposing opinions, I believe this an incredible breakthrough that means a lot to parents afraid to conceive due to the fear of diseases. From this article, this new law shows promising results. The first baby created from this technique could be born as soon as next year.
Although this is obviously beneficial to any future parents afraid of passing on any detrimental diseases, this is still a controversial topic as there are still some who oppose to this recent ruling. Some say that this is a gateway into creating "'designer babies," or children who's traits are selected by the parents based on looks, intelligence, or other traits. (Discovery News, 2015) These people are definitely fans of the movie Gattaca. Other opposers include the church who "who objects to the destruction of embryos that inevitably comes with [in-vitro fertilization]." (Discovery News, 2015) While there are still opposing opinions, I believe this an incredible breakthrough that means a lot to parents afraid to conceive due to the fear of diseases. From this article, this new law shows promising results. The first baby created from this technique could be born as soon as next year.
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