FDA Asked to Approve Creation of Genetically Modified Children

In a public meeting scheduled for February 25-26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will consider approval of experiments to produce children by the in vitro fertilization of an egg containing DNA derived from both the intended mother and another woman. Although such large-scale genetic engineering has never before been attempted in humans, the procedure -- to create "three-parent babies" -- is paradoxically being touted by its developers as a relatively trivial tweaking of the reproductive process to enable women with compromised eggs to become genetic mothers of unaffected children. These claims of high impact health benefits from a low-risk procedure cannot be squared with scientific reality.

The FDA's meeting announcement promises to "discuss oocyte modification in assisted reproduction for the prevention of transmission of mitochondrial disease or treatment of infertility." But while an oocyte (the immature form of an egg) is an absolute requirement for generating an embryo, and ultimately a new person, the immature eggs to be modified are not those of the women seeking assistance in child-bearing. A second woman would contribute the "healthy" egg; the...