The New Science Of Three-Parent Babies

Day two today of F.D.A. hearings on what you may have seen described in headlines as “three-parent babies.”  The genetic material of three adults combined to make one healthy baby.  Mom’s nuclear D.N.A., dad’s sperm, and mitochondrial D.N.A. from a donor, to avoid inheritable disease.  Backers say this reproductive technology will spare families from passing down suffering.  Maybe extend fertility for older moms.  Critics say this is the gateway to genetically modified human beings, high-tech eugenics, dystopia.  This hour On Point:  science, ethics, reproduction, and D.N.A. times three.

– Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Dina Fine Maron, associate editor at Scientific American. (@Dina_Maron)

Stefani Bush, singer, blogger and patient advocate. (@HopeRisingMusic)

Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society.

Dr. James Grifo, program director of New York University’s Fertility Center.

From Tom’s Reading List

Scientific American: Making Babies with 3 Genetic Parents Gets FDA Hearing — “Reproductive technologies that marry DNA from three individuals will receive a trial in the court of public opinion this week. Such technologies may hold promise for averting certain genetically...