We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease

^{Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute}

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “3-parent IVF,” “mitochondrial donation” or “mitochondrial replacement therapy”) at Newcastle Fertility Center in the United Kingdom. Twenty-two women underwent the procedure, which resulted in eight children, who now range in age from six months to over two years old. Some have called it an “important milestone” and a “pioneering” technique to spare children from fatal disease.

New England Journal of Medicine published two articles describing the process, and the follow-up exams of the children. This is not the first time mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) has been used to create children. In 2016, a U.S. physician traveled to Mexico to create an infant using MRT; and clinics in Greece, Ukraine and Cypress advertise MRT as a “treatment” for infertility.

MRT is not a curative therapy, or simply a new type of IVF. MRT is an experimental procedure that creates an embryo using the DNA from three...