UK grants first license to make babies using 3-person DNA – CBS News

In this image made available by the Oregon Health and Science University, a faint white blotch in the tube at right is DNA that has been removed from a human egg, center. The red dot is from a laser used in the procedure.

AP Photo/Oregon Health & Science University

Britains Newcastle University says its scientists have received a license to create babies using DNA from three people, the first time such approval has been granted.

The license was granted by the countrys fertility regulator on Thursday, according to the university.

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The British Parliament took a historic vote Tuesday to allow the creation of babies from the DNA of three people. The controversial procedure is ...

In December, British officials approved the cautious use of the techniques, which are intended to prevent women from passing on fatal genetic diseases to their children. The new procedures fix problems linked to mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside a cells nucleus. Faulty mitochondria can result in conditions including muscular dystrophy and major organ failure.

Last year, U.S.-based doctors announced they had created the worlds first baby using such techniques, after traveling to Mexico to perform the methods, which have not been approved in the United States. In that case, the mother had suffered fourmiscarriagesand had two children who died from a rare and generally fatal neurological disorder called Leigh syndrome, one at age 6 and one at 8 months.

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Doctors say the first baby has been born with DNA from 3 people: mother, father and an egg donor. The controversial technique was designed to pre...

The procedure used in that case, called spindle nuclear transfer, involves removing the healthy nucleus from one of the mothers eggs and transferring it to a donor egg which had had its nucleus removed. The resulting egg with nuclear DNA from the mother and mitochondrial DNA from a donor was then fertilized with the fathers sperm.

The resultingembryocontained genetic material from three parents the mother, the egg donor, and the father.

If you look at the amount of DNA, its almost like its 2.001 parents rather than three. But its DNA from three different people, CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus explained on CBS This Morning last year.

In Britain, leadersdisagreed heatedly on the issuewhile it was up for debate in the House of Commons, with some raising concerns about designer babies and playing God. Leading churches in Britain both Protestant and Catholic opposed the procedure on religious and ethical grounds, they said.

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UK grants first license to make babies using 3-person DNA - CBS News