{"id":9420,"date":"2016-12-15T21:02:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T21:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/12\/15\/u-k-fertility-clinics-can-now-apply-for-licenses-to-create-3-parent-babies\/"},"modified":"2016-12-15T21:02:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T21:02:00","slug":"u-k-fertility-clinics-can-now-apply-for-licenses-to-create-3-parent-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/u-k-fertility-clinics-can-now-apply-for-licenses-to-create-3-parent-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K. Fertility Clinics Can Now Apply For Licenses To Create 3-Parent Babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Dwyer<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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Sally Anscombe\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The U.K.’s fertility regulator has put its seal of approval on the “cautious use” of techniques to create a baby from the DNA of three people. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, or HFEA, announced Thursday that it will now begin to accept applications from fertility clinics that wish to become licensed to perform the procedure.<\/p>\n

The decision means the U.K. will sanction and regulate the techniques, known broadly as mitochondrial donation, “in certain, specific cases.”<\/p>\n

“Today’s historic decision means that parents at very high risk of having a child with a life-threatening mitochondrial disease may soon have the chance of a healthy, genetically related child,” HFEA Chairwoman Sally Cheshire said in a statement released Thursday<\/a>. “This is life-changing for those families.”<\/p>\n

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We have permitted the cautious use of mitochondrial donation in treatment, following advice from scientific experts https:\/\/t.co\/2xKOcriIHO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 HFEA (@HFEA) December 15, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

While the decision is historic, it is by no means sudden. In February 2015, the British Parliament approved the practice<\/a> of mitochondrial donation, and a regulatory framework has existed since October of last year \u2014 though the HFEA advised clinics to wait until it had completed a review and offered its own recommendations.<\/p>\n

An independent panel of scientists completed that years-long review<\/a> last month, recommending that the regulatory agency approve the use of mitochondrial donation “in certain cases where alternative treatments would be of little or no benefit to mothers at risk of passing mitochondrial disease onto their children.”<\/p>\n

The HFEA adopted those recommendations on Thursday.<\/p>\n

As NPR’s Rob Stein reported earlier this year<\/a>, the goal of this technique is to help women who carry diseases known as “mitochondrial disorders, which are only passed down by women through defects in the genetic material in their eggs”:<\/p>\n

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“Specifically, the defects are in a type of genetic material known as mitochondrial DNA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Unlike the DNA that most people are familiar with \u2014 the 23 pairs of human chromosomes that program most of our body processes and traits \u2014 mitochondrial DNA consists of just 37 genes inside mitochondria, which are structures inside cells that provide their energy.<\/p>\n

“Mitochondrial disorders range from mild to severe. In many cases there is no treatment, and the affected child dies early in life after suffering progressive, debilitating symptoms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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