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The British are a pragmatic people, which is a good thing, in general, but doesn’t make for much rigour in the way of ethics. Machiavelli got a bad press for saying the end justifies the means; in Britain he would have been right at home in the science community. So it isn’t entirely surprising that this country is all set to be the first in the world to approve the creation of the first three-parent baby as a way of allowing people with mitochondrial defects to have healthy children of their own.
This would be done by taking the nucleus from a fertilised egg of a woman with these defects and putting it into the fertilised egg of a healthy woman from which the nucleus has been removed. The mother and father, then, would be the main parents, because the nucleus carries the genes that affect things like looks, so the offspring would look like them, not like the third parent who provides the rest of the egg.
A neat mechanical solution to a heart-rending condition; what’s not to like...
This would be done by taking the nucleus from a fertilised egg of a woman with these defects and putting it into the fertilised egg of a healthy woman from which the nucleus has been removed. The mother and father, then, would be the main parents, because the nucleus carries the genes that affect things like looks, so the offspring would look like them, not like the third parent who provides the rest of the egg.
A neat mechanical solution to a heart-rending condition; what’s not to like...