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Dr Trevor Stammers, Programme Director in Bioethics and Medical Law at St Mary’s University, Twickenham and Editor of The New Bioethics, explores in this blog the concerns surrounding the three-parent IVF legislation, which is currently awaiting vote in the House of Lords.
There can be little doubt that the UK science- media machine is in overdrive in urging the Government to give the green light to three-parent IVF and if those contributing genetic material to a child are its genetic parents, this is a correct term to use and certainly more accurate than ‘mitochondrial transfer’ when in fact the only thing transferred is the nucleus of the birth mother’s egg.
However there is not only widespread concern amongst scientists across the world but increasingly in the UK itself that at our current stage of understanding of the interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, this proposed new therapy is in fact nothing more than an uncertain experiment; though intended as miracle cure, it could turn out to be a monstrous mistake.
Though one cannot but have profound sympathy with...