3-parent embryos hoped to free babies of mutant mitochondria

Researchers have successfully transplanted the genetic material in the nucleus of a fertilized human egg into another fertilized egg, without carrying over mitochondria, the energy-producing structures of the cell. The technique could be used to prevent babies from inheriting diseases caused by mutations in the DNA of mitochondria, which are present in the cytoplasm of the egg. Nature

Family Research Council comments:

"Despite the standard hype about curing disease using these cloning techniques, significant ethical concerns exist. First, the technique sacrifices two embryos - the smallest, most vulnerable humans - to create a third, recombined embryo, with two mothers and one father. It is not a possible cure, but germline genetic engineering and even eugenics, in that embryo
manipulation moves us further down the slope not ju st of selecting children, but manufacturing them.

"In this human cloning experiment, the scientists used one-cell embryos as both the DNA donor and recipient. After fertilization, the scientists transferred nuclear material out of one embryo, placing the nuclear material into a second embryo, thus destroying both embryos to create a third, combined embryo. The scientists let the recombined embryos develop for up to eight days before they were destroyed. As with all cloning
experiments, few of the embryos developed. In this case only 18 out of 80 showed any development or divided at all, and only three of the recombined embryos made it to blastocyst stage. This was only half as good as the control 'abnormal' embryos, which also develop poorly when compared to normal IVF embryos, again indicating that cloning and manipulation of embryos introduces problems."