UK votes to be first to allow 3-parent designer babies
Wednesday, 04/02/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: In a landmark development, British MPs on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing existing law to legalise the creation of babies with DNA from two women and one man, even as questions about ethics of the procedure continue.
As many as 382 MPs in the House of Commons voted in favour and 128 against the technique that prevents deadly genetic diseases being passed from mother to child. Critics called it a move towards creating three-parent ‘designer babies’.
Tuesday’s vote, described as ‘historic’, puts UK on the path to become the first country to allow three-parent babies. The motion changing existing law will now go to the House of Lords later this month, and then to Queen Elizabeth for royal assent. After the formalities are completed, the first babies born out of such procedure are likely in 2016.
The technique, developed in Newcastle, uses a modified version of IVF to combine the DNA of the two parents with the healthy mitochondria of a donor woman.
Extending support, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I think it has be thoroughly researched and tested and as someone who had a severely disabled child myself, I know what parents go through when they are concerned about these issues.”
