A child with three parents: scientific marvel or mad science?

A typical happy family by Vera Kratochvil via Wikimedia Creative Commons

Our typical image of a family photo with a newborn baby includes a mother, father and well…the baby. You could possibly throw a sibling, a close uncle or aunt, or some eager grandmother into the mix…Or maybe even a god parent. But the buck would stop there. Or would it?

An Oregon Health team has begun modifying our views of a typical family photo in North America — with the advent of the clinical trial success of three-person in vitro fertilization (IVF). The new procedure they tested makes it possible to create children with genetic material from three parents instead of two.

An artist’s rendition of mitochondria (red) in a cell (left), accompanied by a microscopic image of an actual mitochondria (bottom) by Countincr via Wikimedia Creative Commons

A question you might ask is why? Even though this process is bizarre, it has a good purpose. Three-person IVF prevents transmission mitochondrial diseases from mother to child. Mitochondria, the little engines of the human body, produce energy for the body. We need mitochondria to survive, as they need us to house them. Sometimes, mitochondria do not serve their function well, and this results in mitochondrial disease. Three-way IVF allows a mother to select an egg from another woman which has healthy mitochondria, instead of giving faulty mitochondria to her children.

The process of three-way IVF involves taking an egg from a woman willing to act as a donor and removing the core genetic information from it. This empty egg is then filled with the genetic information of the intended mother and fertilized by the father’s sperm. The result is a child with healthy mitochondria and the genes of the appropriate mother and her partner!

Below, Drs. Turnbull and Murdoch of Newcastle University talk about their work in three-person IVF.

From wellcometrust via Youtube.

With this new scientific marvel does come some madness. Imagine the negative implications that come with the use of this technology. What if, someday, you were to find out that a part of your genetic makeup came from someone other than your parents! Furthermore, what if you decide to donate your eggs to this cause, and then decide that the eggs with the genetic information of the recipient was rightfully yours? Would it be right to design your own baby? The list of problems go on and on. Personally, I believe that the prevention of terrible diseases justifies the legalization of this technology, in spite of all the problems it could cause.

A past technology which was also under controversial was in vitro fertilization, which helped couples which were infertile have children. Ethical issues as to whether it should be publicly funded in Canada remain to this day, because the process is not cheap, and only a few couples would actually use it. Furthermore, some have speculated that this technology allows humans to ‘play God’.

For now, the choice of opening Pandora’s Box is in the hands of the public and the government. Of course, Pandora’s Box also gave rise to hope.

-Shaun Ong