UK Announces Plans to Allow Controversial Three-person IVF

The United Kingdom announced plans this week to become the first country in the world to offer controversial "three-parent" fertility treatments.

The government said it will produce draft regulations later this year and that the procedure could be offered within two years.

According to experts, the three-person IVF could eliminate debilitating and potentially fatal mitochondrial diseases passed down from a mother to her child, though opponents argue that affected couples should simply adopt or use egg donors instead.

Mitochondria act like tiny energy-generating batteries inside cells and, in the case of faulty mitochondrial DNA, individuals can inherit incurable conditions such as fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy.

In all, mitochondrial disease affects approximately one in 6,500 children worldwide, according to scientists.

The methods to perform the sophisticated procedure, however, are currently only at the research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States. All of them, however, would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women or the first time.

One technique being developed at Britain's Newcastle University, according to Reuters, includes swapping DNA between two fertilized human eggs while another. Another procedure, called maternal spindle transfer, instead exchanges material between the mother's egg and a donor egg before fertilization.

For those against the procedure, the move to legalize it is seen as the first step on a slippery slope toward the creation of "designer babies," or offspring whose genes have been infused with desirable traits, much like the sci-fi movie "Gattaca."

However, in addition to a positive review by a British medical ethics panel, a national public consultation by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority showed that those living in the UK broadly favor the idea.

"Scientists have developed ground-breaking new procedures which could stop these diseases being passed on, bringing hope to many families seeking to prevent their children inheriting them," Sally Davies, chief medical officer, told reporters. "It's only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can."