• Question: Do you agree with Three Parent Babies and if so why???

    Asked by Katy to Dave, Ed, Guido, Hugh, Stef on 12 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Dave Bond

      Dave Bond answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      Well this is one where personal opinion is quite a big factor. It is quite a new technique and I think there is still a way to go in knowing all the issues.

      In some ways its not different to a organ donation, and this is right on the edge of what I know as I am not a biologist. As it is the mitochondrial DNA this is not changing the nucleus so does not impact on the characturistics of the child other than preventing mitochondrial disease.

      But I do think that there are limits on how much fiddling should be done to prevent disease. I feel this is a little too far but this is a bit of a gut feeling.

    • Photo: Ed Rial

      Ed Rial answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      Yes. And I disagree to some extent with Dave about this being about personal opinion, I think this one is a black and white answer.

      The current proposal is to replace the mitochondria in the egg cells of the mother (or more precisely purge the nuclear DNA from a healthy egg cell and replace it with the mother’s nuclear DNA). Mitochondria are the power-stations of our cells and they carry their own DNA, if this DNA carries bad mutations it can cause very bad and life-limiting diseases. Because all of your mitochondria come from your mother we can know these days beforehand if a child is going to suffer very harmful effects on their health. If we can prevent this, I think we should.

      I don’t think the donor of the healthy cell should retain any parental rights; they will not be responsible (usually) for bringing up the child.

      Ed

    • Photo: Hugh Harvey

      Hugh Harvey answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Yes I do!

      I think that anything to help people have children is a good thing, as long as we are certain about the risks of mitochondrial DNA first.

    • Photo: Guido Bolognesi

      Guido Bolognesi answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Hi Katy,

      Uao guys, you definitely know much more about mitochondrial DNA than me.

      My point of view is quite simple… if such a technique helps to prevent diseases on the newborn why should we not use it? Science can make our lives better and that is one of the ways it does.

Comments