"Three-Person IVF" Update Reveals How Little We Know

Three-person IVF is a critical departure from the traditional kind. This new and biologically extreme technique, which has generated scientific and bioethical controversy on both sides of the Atlantic, would combine genetic material from one man and two women in a single embryo. It is currently prohibited in the United Kingdom, but has been heavily promoted by its developers, and the law could be changed as soon as this year to allow it to move into fertility clinics.

The technique under consideration is being proposed for women with a rare form of mitochondrial disease who wish to have an unaffected and mostly genetically related child. It requires the extraction of the nucleus from her egg or embryo followed by its reinsertion into another woman's egg or embryo. Any resulting child would inherit nuclear DNA from the intended mother and mitochondrial DNA from an anonymous egg provider.

The UK's fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has just released an update on the safety and efficacy of this "three-person IVF." The HFEA report will help inform the upcoming Parliamentary...