Should Persons Affected by Mitochondrial Disorders Not be Brought Into Existence?

Untitled Document In their article entitled Is mitochondrial replacement therapy eugenic and incompatible with human dignity? in BioNews 733, John Appleby, Professor Rosamund Scott and Professor Stephen Wilkinson respond to a written declaration by 34 parliamentarians from 13 of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe which opposed intentional heritable modifications (1).

This declaration stated that 'the creation of children with genetic material from more than two progenitor persons, as is being proposed by the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [HFEA], is incompatible with human dignity and international law' (2). The parliamentarians were concerned that the UK Government may be about to legalise maternal spindle transfer (MST) and pronuclear transfer (PT), which are forms of germline modifications for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders which involve the transfer of chromosomes between unfertilised or fertilised eggs respectively (3).

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