London - The science that could allow babies with three parents to be born in Britain is unproven and may be unsafe, a leading US scientist says.
The government could give the go-ahead as early as next year for children to be born using genetic material from two mothers and a father – making the UK the first country in the world to license the technique for clinical use.
But Professor Evan Snyder, the top scientific adviser on the issue to US authorities, warned there were unresolved safety concerns.
The procedure is designed to give couples who have endured the heartache of repeatedly miscarrying or burying much-longed-for children the option of having a healthy family.
It helps women with damaged mitochondria – which power cells by turning food into energy. The defect causes serious illness in one in 6 500 babies and is behind 50 genetic diseases, many of which kill in infancy.
Women carrying damaged mitochondria can also miscarry repeatedly and often face the heartbreaking choice of whether it would be best to remain childless. But scientists want to swap healthy mitochondria from an egg donated by a woman into the egg of the mother-to-be.
The UK Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority said this year there was no evidence that the technique would be unsafe.
But Professor Snyder, who chairs the scientific panel advising the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), believes years’ more research is needed before the technique is used.
Speaking to the Independent newspaper, he said: “The panel was not in any way antagonistic towards this intervention.
“The diseases are terrible, the treatments are non-existent and the technology so far is a tour de force. However, everybody concluded that there is still more work to be done.
“The gap I’m talking about is about how much pre-clinical scientific work needs to be done before scientists or someone on the FDA would feel comfortable that we’re assured of safety.”
Asked whether it would be justifiable to permit the procedure to go ahead on compassionate grounds, Professor Snyder said it should not be allowed until all the extra research is completed.
He said: “We don’t know whether these changes will be passed to future generations.”
The UK’s proposals involve the replacement of all mitochondria in a mother’s egg with that from a donor, rather than mixing it together from the two different mothers as intended in the US.
Critics say the technique defies nature and crosses a crucial ethical line because it could be altered to create “designer babies”. By swapping genetic material before conception, doctors could create babies made to order by hair or eye colour.
Even among those who do not oppose the technique on ethical grounds, many fear that we have insufficient scientific evidence that the technique is safe. - Daily Mail