iStock/Thinkstock(LONDON) — The U.K.’s independent fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, has approved new fertility treatments that would result in babies with genetic material from three separate parents.
According to BBC News, the technique is meant to prevent babies from being born with incurable mitochondrial diseases that can cause muscle weakness, blindness, learning disabilities, deafness, heart failure and a number of other debilitating conditions, which are often fatal.
These conditions affect about 1 in 4,300 children, BBC News reports.
However, mitochondrial diseases can only be passed down by the mother. The new treatments use sperm from the father, an egg from the mother, as well as a second donor egg from a woman with healthy mitochondria. The child would inherit the donor’s mitochondrial DNA, but all DNA that determines a child’s physical attributes and personality traits would still come from their parents.
“Today’s historic decision means that parents at very high risk of having a child with a life-threatening mitochondrial disease may soon have the chance of a healthy, genetically related child,” said Sally Cheshire, chair of HFEA. “This is life-changing for those families.”
The HFEA still must approve every clinic that offers the treatments, and every patient who requests them. The treatments will only be approved in cases where the risk of mitochondrial disease is thought to be extremely high.
The U.K. is not the first country to approve “three parent” babies — a Jordanian couple had the procedure done in Mexico, and the baby appears to be healthy.
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