"It will be very difficult not to be driven on the slippery slope of designer babies"
Babies with three parents, or more accurately, that would be from three different DNA, British MPs have said "yes".
The objective of this genetic manipulation is to prevent the transmission of certain serious diseases. The UK will become the first country to confirm this controversial process.
"It will be the first time we intentionally manipulate the human genome, said Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert. The last 20 years the world had agreed not to do this, and once you've taken the plunge, it is very difficult not to be driven on the slippery slope of designer babies. "
About 125 babies are born each year in Britain with mitochondrial dysfunction, transmitted by the mother. It is the cause of diseases such as diabetes or myopathy. Olivia is a surrogate mother:
"When you have a baby, and discover that it is sick or is a carrier as you said Olivia Seaby, and that the life expectancy of this child is very short ... It's devastating to a woman. "
The idea is to modify the genome by introducing 1% of a genome that comes from elsewhere. The first baby born from this technique which combine the DNA of two women and a man could be born in the fall of 2016.
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