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 In an open letter ahead of a parliamentary vote scheduled for
Tuesday, charities and advocacy groups said the opportunity "offers
families the first glimmer of hope that they might be able to have a
baby that will live without pain and suffering."
The technique under debate is known as mitochondrial donation and is
often referred to as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF)
because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and
from a female donor.
The process, still only at the research stage in Britain and the
United States, involves intervening in the fertilization process to
remove faulty mitochondrial DNA, which can cause inherited
conditions such as fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain
disorders, blindness and muscular dystrophy.
It is feared by critics who say it effectively allows "designer
babies" because it would involve implanting genetically modified
embryos into women.
Britain last February set out draft legislation that, if passed,
would make it the first country to allow the technique.
In their letter, groups including the U.S.-based United
Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, the Australian Mitochondrial
Disease Foundation and groups from France, Germany, Britain and
Spain, described mitochondrial disease as "unimaginably cruel".
"It strips our children of the skills they have learned, inflicts
pain that cannot be managed and tires their organs one by one until
their little bodies cannot go on any more," they wrote.
They said they were aware "that no novel medical procedure is
without risk", but had "absolute confidence" in scientific panels
that have examined the technique.
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The issue of mitochondrial donation has been scrutinized by several
expert panels in Britain, including the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
Many scientists and medics have welcomed the government's decision
to push ahead.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said it would "allow
the law to catch up with public and scientific opinion".
"Parents who know what it means to care for a sick and suffering
child with mitochondrial disease are the people best placed to
decide ... whether mitochondrial donation is right for them," he
said. "It is time to allow them to make that choice."
(Editing by Stephen Powell)
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