Three-Parent Embryos: Medical World Falls Out Over Eggs, Cells and Terminology
By Steve Connor,
The Independent
| 02. 08. 2015
Untitled Document
It may seem strange that an expert in cloning – the man who produced the first clones of an adult monkey – is now dabbling in a technique that has become widely known as “mitochondrial donation”, a term with the more vulgar moniker of “three-parent” embryos.
Shoukhrat Mitalipov has earned a global reputation as a superb experimentalist able to perform procedures on eggs and embryos that have defied many of his peers. Born in the Soviet Union, in what is now Kazakhstan, and trained in Moscow, Dr Mitalipov, 53, emigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s. Since then he has created shock-waves around the world with his prowess in the manipulation of eggs and embryos.
He now intends to use mitochondrial donation as a treatment for age-related infertility, providing he receives approval for clinical trials.
For many this is confusing, and the reason has much to do with how the scientific terminology surrounding this technique has been subtly manipulated over recent years to make it more publicly acceptable.
Mitochondrial donation is also known as mitochondrial transfer, and...
Related Articles
By Pallab Gosh and Gwyndaf Hughes, BBC News | 06.26.2025
Work has begun on a controversial project to create the building blocks of human life from scratch, in what is believed to be a world first.
The research has been taboo until now because of concerns it could lead to...
Since the “CRISPR babies” scandal in 2018, no additional genetically modified babies are known to have been born. Now several techno-enthusiastic billionaires are setting up privately funded companies to genetically edit human embryos, with the explicit intention of creating genetically modified children.
Heritable genome editing remains prohibited by policies in the overwhelming majority of countries that have any relevant policy, and by a binding European treaty. Support for keeping it legally off limits is widespread, including among scientists...
By Rhys Blakely, The Times | 06.24.2025
Scientists have created fertile mice from male genetic material alone, a breakthrough that could one day open the door to human babies who inherit their genes from two fathers.
The experiment, led by Professor Yanchang Wei at Shanghai Jiao Tong...
By Ron Leuty, San Francisco Business Times | 06.16.2025
23andMe's two-step sale to a nonprofit led by former CEO Anne Wojcicki is nothing more than a dance around California's genetic privacy law, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a filing late Monday, one day before a judge will...
