Triple fertilization in GB: 8 babies born without genetic diseases

Eight babies have been born in the United Kingdom in recent months with no evidence of serious genetic diseases—potentially inherited from their parents—as part of a pilot preventative in vitro fertilization (IVF) project using genetic material from three people: the father, the mother, and another female donor for each birth. The BBC reports.

The technique, legalized about ten years ago on the island, where scientists have long been engaged in pioneering experiments in the field, allows for the cross-fertilization of mothers' eggs and fathers' sperm with eggs donated by a third party. It was specifically tested to limit the risk of transmitting diseases and conditions normally passed from mother to child, such as an incurable form of mitochondrial disease.

A syndrome from which the eight newborns in question appear to have been spared.

The triple fertilization technique involves children inheriting most of their DNA from their parents, with just 0.1% coming from the third donor: however, this is sufficient for the intended precautionary purposes.

The experiment was also illustrated in two reports published in the American New England Journal of Medicine. A total of 22 families consulted doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre in northern England. Eight pregnancies were successfully carried to term: four boys and four girls, all healthy.