Human Germline Modification in the UK? Cries of Caution from all Corners

Posted by Jessica Cussins November 13, 2014
Biopolitical Times

The UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee held an evidence hearing on October 22 to discuss the science of what they euphemistically call “mitochondrial donation.”

The Committee has now published all of the evidence it received for that hearing. Out of twenty submissions, just five explicitly argue in favor of changing the current UK law prohibiting human inheritable genetic modification in order to allow three-person IVF. These arguments largely consist of emotional pleas from families that currently have a child suffering from mitochondrial disease, and that want to utilize the technology in an attempt to have an unaffected and genetically related child.

The other fifteen submissions warn that we are nowhere near being able to promise these families a healthy child. Three make the case that more evidence is needed prior to offering these techniques in fertility clinics. Twelve argue that the risks to women and children are so great that we need to rethink this entire route as a means to prevent inter-generational transmission of disease.

None of these detailed letters were mentioned at the hearing. When I wrote a blog about it a couple weeks ago, I used the provocative title, “What Good is a Scientific Meeting If You Dismiss the Science?” Now that I’ve seen all the evidence the Committee received, I’m wondering if “Dismiss” should be replaced with “Systematically Ignore.” In fact, one scientist who submitted an eleven-page correspondence on concerns about “the safety of the procedures and the health of the children created through them,” notes

The entire public debate and consultation process surrounding mitochondrial replacement has been based on disastrously flawed scientific assumptions.

He’s not wrong.

Although this latest bundle of correspondence is unlikely to get much media attention, the advent of yet more well-documented public criticism could leave its mark.  Leading stem cell scientist Paul Knoepfler wrote an open letter to UK Parliament warning that allowing human trials of three-person IVF at this time would be an “historic mistake.” And the editors at the New Scientist recently changed their tune to assert that these techniques are “more messy than [they] thought” because “children conceived in this way will inherit vital traits from three parents.”

What will be determined at the upcoming Parliamentary vote is still anyone’s guess.

Previously on Biopolitical Times: