DNA Of Three People Could Make A Healthy Baby
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UNITED KINGDOM (CBSDFW.COM) - Today after a 90 minute debate British lawmakers said 'yes' to creating babies using DNA from three people. The IVF technique is aimed at preventing infants from being born with certain genetic diseases. It would include incurable illnesses like 4-year-old Poppy Kitto inherited.
Poppy's father James Kitto says, "Her speech is really challenged, for someone who is four, and her overall quality of life isn't that of a normal four-year-old sadly."
Poppy has mitochondrial disease which can cause deadly heart problems, brain disorders and muscular dystrophy. Her parents worry Poppy and her older sister Lily could one day pass the genetic disease onto their children.
"I think a change in the law to allow this procedure to take place will definitely give our two girls an important option in the future and hope that we can stop the mitochondrial disease spreading," the children's mother Kathryn Kitto says.
The goal of three-parent IVF is to create genetically modified embryos that use healthy DNA from a female donor. Some religious groups and critics say it's unethical and one step closer to producing designer babies.
Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert says, "This will be the first time that we would intentionally manipulate the human genome. It is something that governments around the world have agreed for the last 20 years that we shouldn't do."
Supporters of three-person IVF say it's safe and will give hope to families like the Kittos.
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