Children born to three parents for the first time
The in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure was performed using new technologies aimed at preventing children from inheriting incurable diseases. IVF with mitochondrial donation involves taking tissue from the eggs of healthy female donors to create embryos without the harmful mutations that their mothers carry and that can be passed on to their children.The procedure was performed for the first time in the United Kingdom. With this type of IVF, 99.8% of the baby's DNA still belongs to the biological father and mother. In 2015, the UK Parliament legislated to make IVF using biological material from three parents possible. Two years later, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national center with a license to perform it. Doctors at the clinic have not released details about the births.
Experimental evidence suggests that in some cases a tiny small number of abnormal mitochondria, which are inevitably transferred from the mother's egg to the donor's egg, can multiply. This can lead to disease in the child.