Many of you have heard about a two parent baby, but what are the chances of hearing about a three parent baby? A 6-month old baby boy is the first baby to be born using DNA from three people, hence given the name, three parent baby. The technique used to make the baby is called spindle transfer. In the process, the membrane surrounding the nucleus breaks down from two unfertilized egg cells each from the donor and the mother (Saey 2016). As chromosome are divided, they are attached to protein fibers called spindles (Saey 2016). These spindle and chromosomes are removed from the mother’s egg and emptied from the donor egg (Saey 2016). Then, the spindle and its attached chromosomes from the mother egg’s is placed into the empty donor egg (Saey
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The risks and quality of life of the baby need to be taken into consideration. There is a possibility that chromosomes will fall off the spindle, resulting in an embryo with too few chromosomes. This will cause an abnormal development. In fact, the doctor who performed the spindle transfer technique on the baby boy also did the same technique on five other embryos and only the baby boy was a successful story, while the other babies did not develop normally. Although, this is one successful story, there are many more unsuccessful stories. Also, is it really a successful story? The truth is, the future of the baby is unknown. There is a chance that the faulty mitochondria may replicate and increase the percentage of the faulty mitochondria. If this happens, the baby boy may develop Leigh disease. There may be other risks that are unknown. This is not a chance worth taking since a person’s life is at risk. If parent’s want to prevent transferring diseases to their children, there are many safer and better procedures to have. For example, parents could adopt or have a IVF using eggs from a healthy donor. This ensures that the baby will not develop mitochondrial diseases because the children will not have any of the mother’s DNA
The risks and quality of life of the baby need to be taken into consideration. There is a possibility that chromosomes will fall off the spindle, resulting in an embryo with too few chromosomes. This will cause an abnormal development. In fact, the doctor who performed the spindle transfer technique on the baby boy also did the same technique on five other embryos and only the baby boy was a successful story, while the other babies did not develop normally. Although, this is one successful story, there are many more unsuccessful stories. Also, is it really a successful story? The truth is, the future of the baby is unknown. There is a chance that the faulty mitochondria may replicate and increase the percentage of the faulty mitochondria. If this happens, the baby boy may develop Leigh disease. There may be other risks that are unknown. This is not a chance worth taking since a person’s life is at risk. If parent’s want to prevent transferring diseases to their children, there are many safer and better procedures to have. For example, parents could adopt or have a IVF using eggs from a healthy donor. This ensures that the baby will not develop mitochondrial diseases because the children will not have any of the mother’s DNA