In February, the Commons and Lords voted to make the UK the first place in the world where babies with ‘three parents’ can be created.
Some have said that this is a scaremonger-ing summary of a technique which is just akin to a battery change, as no nuclear DNA (that which makes a person a person), is going to be transferred during the process from the ‘third parent’ to the embryo. Indeed, it may just appear that the ‘church’, and others on the ethical bandwagon are again standing in the way of people’s fertility choices.
However, it’s not just some Christians who are deeply concerned about this ‘miracle cure’ to a terrible disease, which sees the carrier give birth to children who will die young or not survive more than a few hours. Scientists around the world are not clear as to how the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA interact. Some are concerned that the future for these newly created children may be just as bleak, in fertility terms, as for their genetic parents.
