Rosie Squires
Daily Telegraph
SYDNEY scientists want to create designer babies with the DNA of three parents to prevent children inheriting life-threatening diseases.
IVF specialists argue they could eradicate mitochondrial mutations – which can cause multi-organ failure and fatal heart, liver and muscle conditions – by removing defective genes and replacing them with healthy DNA from a donor.
The procedure, described by scientific opponents as “fraught with danger”, would ensure women with the severe genetic condition do not pass it on to their children.
“This would mean we are using the genes of three parents,” IVF Australia’s Professor Peter Illingworth told The Sunday Telegraph.
But Professor Illingworth defended the procedure, saying it was “not properly understood” and “would not affect the child’s genetic make-up”.
Read More: Scientists want kids with three parents to help eradicate genetic disease
Cartoon by Bob Moran
