World first as baby born using new “three-person IVF” in Kiev

A baby girl has been born in Ukraine using a new kind of “three-person IVF”.

The Kiev team are the first to successfully use the method called pronuclear transfer, whereby the mother’s egg was fertilised with her partner’s sperm, with the combined genes transferred into a donor egg. The newly born child shares the genetic identity of her parents, while also carrying a very small amount of DNA from the egg donor.

Although the technique was initially developed to increase the chances of women at risk of passing on serious genetic disorders, known as mitochondrial disease, having a healthy child, the Kiev doctors used the process to help an infertile but otherwise healthy couple.

The baby born in Ukraine is not the first to be born with DNA from three parents, however. Last year, another child was born using a similar method in Mexico.

This science is both cutting-edge and controversial, with significant ethical questions raised, including how any child born via the technique might feel about having DNA from three people.

Source: BBC News