Lords approve mitochondrial donation treatment
25 Feb 2015
Members of the House of Lords have approved laws which could prevent serious mitochondrial diseases being passed from mother to child.
The draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 were agreed last night after a motion attempting to block their approval was defeated.
The therapy gained approval from the House of Commons last July.
The new regulations make provision to enable two mitochondrial donation techniques to be used under licence as part of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment with the aim of preventing the transmission of serious mitochondrial disease from a mother to her child, a House of Lords statement said.
“It is scientific folly to talk about three-parent babies and profoundly ethically misleading
University of Edinburgh’s Graeme Laurie
“This is wonderful news for patients and families affected by mitochondrial disease. Mitochondrial donation has undergone essential scientific, ethical and parliamentary scrutiny,” said Doug Turnbull, professor of Neurology at Newcastle University.
The IVF techniques currently being considered are in an “advanced stage of testing” and the use of the procedure in humans is expected to begin within two years, the House of Lords statement said.
Some experts, however, have voiced their concern about seeing these regulations as ’the road to three-parent babies’.
“It is scientific folly to talk about three-parent babies and profoundly ethically misleading,” said Graeme Laurie, founding director of the JK Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law at the University of Edinburgh.
“Westminster has seen through the scaremongering and approved a technique that will now be responsibly regulated by the most experienced regulator in the world: the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA),” Laurie said.
The HFEA is the UK’s independent regulator that oversees the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research.
Director of Genetic Alliance UK Alastair Kent said: “With this vote the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is empowered to licence the use of mitochondrial donation.
“We look forward to working with the HFEA and our members to ensure the voice of those families that stand to benefit is considered as part of the licensing process, so that when the time is right, they can look forward to children of their own who will not be affected by serious mitochondrial disease.”
