Mexico was the first in the history of the child from three parents – Moskovsky Komsomolets

in Addition to the genes of the mother and father he received the mitochondrial DNA of another woman.

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With the help of a special medical procedure that involves “transplant” the embryo mitochondrial DNA from the donor in Mexico appeared first in the world “a child from three parents”. It happened back in April of this year, however, the media learned about the event only recently. The boy was born healthy and at five months feels good. While many scientists are inclined to consider the incident a genuine scientific breakthrough, a number of public figures are concerned about the ethical aspect.

photo: pixabay.com

Technology, which was used by American experts for help living in Mexico Jordanians, allows in-vitro fertilization to use not only the genetic material of the father and mother, but also mitochondrial DNA from the second woman. In some cases, this allows to save a child from serious hereditary diseases transmitted on the maternal side, otherwise not too “meddling” in the genome of the embryo. In fact, of the 23 thousand, which makes man as he is, in the mitochondria contains just 37 genes. Moreover, in the case of the birth of the boy intervention in the genome should in no way affect his own children — as already mentioned, mitochondrial DNA is passed to children exclusively from the mother.

the Jordanian couple, who turned to scientists for help, faced difficulties due to the fact that the woman was a passive carrier of Leia’s syndrome — a genetic disease affecting the Central nervous system. Although the woman is the carrier leading to the disease, she does not suffer from the disease, two of her children died at an early age, and another pregnancy ended in miscarriage. The couple decided to refer to specialists with the request to solve their problem the latest and somewhat experimental method.

At the time when professionals under the direction of surgeon John Chan consented to help the pair, the technology of integration of mitochondrial DNA into the genome of the embryo was permitted only in the UK. However, the legislation did not contain as explicit approval and direct prohibition on such practices because of what scholars consider it permissible to apply the technology to this country.

In June that clinical testing of the technology the advent of children from three parents at the moment are successful, said British experts suggested that in the future, this procedure can start practicing in the country.