3-parent embryo experiments raise ethical issues

Recent experiments from Newcastle University, England, that create embryos from two mothers and one father, have brought to the fore new ethical issues from pro life advocates, the Christian Telegraph reported.

According to the Christian Telegraph, the experiment seeks to address mitochondrial disease, an inherited illness borne by the mother.

One in 6,500 children is born in England with mitochondrial disease, which can lead to muscular weakness, dementia, deafness, blindness and heart failure among others.

The mitochondria in cells get the energy from food and convert it into a form that the cells can use.

Mitochondria have 37 DNA which function mostly in energy-related ways to the rest of the body, and help to assemble protein building blocks, according to the President’s Council on Bioethics.

In the UK experiment scientists removed all the male sperm and female material from a fertilized egg—except the damaged mitochondria.

They then inserted it into another egg which had been emptied of everything except its healthy mitochondria.

The resulting new embryo was made largely of both parents’ 23,000 genes, plus the 37 mitochondrial DNA from the donor egg.  This experiment used embryos that originally had been newly conceived for in vitro fertilization (IVF).  The embryos that were left over became the material for the experiment.

Some 80 new embryos were made by the Newcastle team.  The experiment was licensed by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HEFA), and was funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

Of the 80, only eight percent or 6.4 embryos grew normally into blastocysts.  The blastocyst stage usually occurs 5 days after fertilization.

It has not yet implanted, but it has an inner cell mass which will become the fetus, and is surrounded by an outer ring that will become part of the placenta, according to the President’s Council on Bioethics.

The team that conducted the experiment believes they will have better results if they use normal embryos, and now hope to do so.  The experiment used faulty embryos which were discarded after IVF treatment and donated for research, according to Timesonline.

Opponents to the experiment have raised ethical concerns.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said the experiment kills and abuses human embryo.

SPUC communications manager Anthony Ozimic said, “Creating embryonic children in the laboratory abuses them, by subjecting them to unnatural processes.”

He also warned of possible “developmental abnormalities,” such as have resulted from IVF and cloning.

“Scientists should respect human life and pursue ethical alternatives which are much more likely to be successful in the long-term,” Ozimic said, according to the Christian Telegraph.

Dr. Donald Bruce, former director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland said, “If the Newcastle results are taken forward to medical application, they need to be applied under very strict controls, and only where serious disease is otherwise likely to result,” according to the BBC.

Readers of Timesonline also wrote their reactions.

Elaine Smith wrote:

“In most cases, I really do think all forms of IVF should be banned and adoption be made simpler and faster. There are 6 billion people on earth, and then these people spend all this money on having a baby that they could have spent adopting and helping some third world child.”

Barry Johnston wrote:

“I really can’t understand this. There are THOUSANDS of unwanted children in this country and beyond. Instead of spending billions trying to create a perfect child, why not give a child a near perfect life of love and acceptance?”

Ben Turner wrote:

“Coming from a person with a genetic disorder I can see how it is a gift to be born without one, especially if it is severe.”

In the UK, it is currently illegal to use this technique for fertility treatment.