Nuffield Council Gives Green Light to the Prevention of Inherited Mitochondrial Disease
By Antony Blackburn-Starza,
BioNews
| 06. 12. 2012
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published an ethical review of
new techniques which aim to prevent the transmission of faulty mtDNA
from mother to child. The report concludes that such techniques are
ethically permissible, provided that further research establishes their
safety.
The Council said the benefits of children being born free of mitochondrial
disorders outweigh the ethical concerns raised over the potential use
of the techniques. It also highlighted the benefits of women carrying mutated mtDNA being able to have children who are genetically related to them, and ensuring that subsequent generations are also free from mitochondrial disorders.
Related Articles
By Alondra Nelson, Science | 09.11.2025
In the United States, the summer of 2025 will be remembered as artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) cruel summer—a season when the unheeded risks and dangers of AI became undeniably clear. Recent months have made visible the stakes of the unchecked use...
By Margaux MacColl, The San Francisco Standard | 09.17.2025
Designer babies are coming soon to an IVF clinic near you.
Nucleus Genomics, founded by Kian Sadeghi in 2020, when he was just 20, got its start analyzing genomes to weigh a person’s risk of everything from cancer to ADHD...
By Auriane Polge, Science & Vie [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 09.19.2025
L’idée de pouvoir choisir certaines caractéristiques de son futur enfant a longtemps relevé de la science-fiction ou du débat éthique. Aujourd’hui, les technologies de séquençage et les algorithmes d’analyse génétique repoussent les limites de ce qui semblait encore impossible. Au croisement...
By Charmayne Allison, ABC News | 09.21.2025
It has been seven years since Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui made an announcement that shocked the world's scientists.
He had made the world's first gene-edited babies.
Through rewriting DNA in twin girls' embryos, the man who would later be dubbed...