MPs are to vote on whether UK should become first country to legalise controversial three parent babies Advocates have compared the IVF technique to changing a battery IVF technique involves taking nucleus out of the egg of a mother with faulty mitochondria transferring it into a healthy egg donated by another woman By Jonathan Petre and Stephen Adams for The Mail on Sunday Published: 18:21 EST, 4 October 2014 | Updated: 07:16 EST, 5 October 2014 99 shares 81 View comments Legislation to allow the birth of babies with genes from three biological parents should be put on hold because it is far riskier than previously thought, scientists warn. MPs are due to vote on whether the UK should become the first country to legalise controversial three parent babies after Government watchdog the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) gave it the go-ahead. Advocates have compared the IVF technique, which involves inserting a small set of genes from a second mother, to changing a battery, saying it had no real impact on the babys core DNA. Advocates claim the IVF technique, which involves inserting a small set of genes from a second mother, to changing a battery, saying it had … Continue reading →

In a letter seen by the Sunday Times to the Commons science and technology committee, which is holding a one-day inquiry into three parent embryos on October 22, a group of scientists said: "The safety of mitochondrial replacement therapy is not yet established sufficiently well to proceed to clinical trials." However, an editorial in New Scientist said mitochondria "play a key role in some of the most important features of human life. This raises the ethically troubling prospect ... that children conceived in this way will inherit vital traits from three parents." Stuart Newman, a cell biologist and professor at New York Medical College, will submit his objections this week and said the importance of the outer part of the egg, donated by the second woman, was being played down. "The mitochondria are ... participants in the development of the organism. This clearly makes any person [brought into being from the procedure] a product of wholesale genetic engineering," he said. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which backs mitochondrial replacement, said it could "see no reason for changing its in-depth and considered views on this matter". Here is the original post: Three-parent babies are 'genetic engineering' and be banned … Continue reading →