First UK Baby Born with DNA from Three Different People
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Progress with MDT led parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit the procedure. Two years later, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national center licensed to perform it, with the first cases approved in 2018. Approval is given on a case-by-case basis by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which has given the green light for at least 30 cases.
Doctors at the Newcastle clinic have not released details of births from its MDT program, amid concerns that specific information could compromise patient confidentiality.
But in response to a freedom of information request by the Guardian, the HFEA confirmed that a small number of babies have now been born in the UK after MDT.
The regulator said the number of births was “less than five” rather than giving the precise figure because doing so “could lead to the identification of a person to whom the HFEA owes a duty of confidentiality”. The number was accurate as of late April 2023, it said. No further details of the births were provided.
The treatment program was substantially delayed by the pandemic, which the Guardian understands deterred some donors from coming forwards and affected couples hoping to go ahead with the therapy.
The Newcastle process has several steps. First, sperm from the father is used to fertilize eggs from the affected mother and a healthy female donor. The nuclear genetic material from the donor’s egg is then removed and replaced with that from the couple’s fertilized egg.
The resulting egg has a full set of chromosomes from both parents but carries the donor’s healthy mitochondria instead of the mother’s faulty ones. This is then implanted in the womb.
The procedure is not without risks. Recent research has found that in some cases, the tiny number of abnormal mitochondria that are inevitably carried over from the mother’s egg to the donor egg can multiply when the baby is in the womb.
