In the United Kingdom , the first child "from three parents" was born using a cutting-edge technique of assisted reproduction that crosses the DNA of three different people to avoid transmission of rare hereditary diseases via the mother .
The first child from three parents ever was born in 2016 in Mexico, according to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority to date there are "less than five" children born using this procedure .
The technique, called Mdt and much criticized in the bioethical field , consists in replacing the DNA contained in the energy control units of the cell (mitochondria) of the mother carrying the hereditary "defect" with that of a healthy woman. It had been introduced by the Newcastle Fertility Center and in 2015 the go-ahead from the British Parliament for use in the country had arrived.
Doctors at the Newcastle clinic have not released details on births that took place within the MDT program in the English city, fearing that specific information could compromise the confidentiality of the families concerned.
(Unioneonline/L)
