Where does that lead to? First born baby with the genetic material of three parents

Child born with DNA of three people
In Mexico, for the first time, a child was born with the DNA of three people. Since the boy's mother suffers from a rare hereditary disease, the doctors had opted for a method of fertilization that is not legal in many other countries.

Baby born with DNA from three parents
According to media reports, a baby with the DNA of three people was born in Mexico for the first time. The boy was therefore already born in April. The mother of the child suffers from a rare hereditary disease. Therefore, the doctors from the US decided for a novel technique to fulfill the parents of the desire to have children. The magazine "New Scientist" writes about the "3-parent" technique. The treatment took place in Mexico because there is no legal regulation for the reproductive medical procedure.

In Mexico, for the first time, a baby was born with the genetic material of three parents. The technology that helped in this is not allowed in Germany. (Image: tostphoto / fotolia.com)

Critics point to ethical and moral problems
"That's good news and a big deal," said Dusko Ilic of Kings College London, who was not involved in the work. "It's revolutionary." In Britain, fertilization with the genetic material of three parents had been discussed years ago.

Critics had pointed above all to the high psychological stress for children, if they had in a sense two mothers. And also on ethical and moral reasons. "These techniques are unnecessary and insecure and are rejected by the majority," Dr. David King of the "Human Genetics Alert" then opposite "BBC".

Mother suffers from rare hereditary disease
The mother of the boy born in April suffers from the so-called Leigh syndrome, a rare hereditary disease that affects DNA in cell (mitochondrial) power plants, the news agency dpa reports. She had already lost several children before and after birth. The US physicians now removed the mature, but still unfertilized core of a maternal oocyte using a novel technique.

As reported by John Zhang and colleagues in the journal "Fertility and Sterility", this core has been used in a gutted donor egg cell with healthy mitochondria. Subsequently, the resulting cell was fertilized in the laboratory with the father's seed.

Treatment in Mexico for legal reasons
Zhang, who normally works at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York, reported that the Jordan-born parents were treated in Mexico because the controversial technique is not prohibited there, unlike in the US.

It is said that the parents had rejected a similar procedure permitted in the UK, where the cores are exchanged from already fertilized egg cells, for reasons of faith. Embryos would have been discarded at a very early stage of development.

Normal nine-month pregnancy
According to the report, five embryos were created in 2015 using the new procedure, of which one could develop normally and be used by the mother. The boy was born after a normal nine-month pregnancy. According to the scientists, only one percent of mutant mitochondria were discovered in the newborn, hopefully not enough to cause problems.

Technology is not allowed in Germany
However, the boy is not the first baby with three genetic parents. For example, Alana Saarinen, a girl who also carries genes from her father and two women, was reported years ago. In this case, the mitochondria were subsequently added to the fertilized egg cell (cytoplasmic transfer). The technique had been banned shortly after Alana's birth by the US Food and Drug Administration. In other countries, such as Germany, it was never allowed. (Ad)