Babies Born in Britain Using Genetic Material from Three People

For the first time, a new process that uses the genetic¹ material of three people has resulted in the birth of several babies in Britain. The experimental process has been used before in Mexico and the United States.

Britain's fertility regulator said Wednesday that the parents used a process which was approved with some restrictions² in 2015.

The story was first reported by The Guardian³ newspaper. Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said only that fewer than five babies were born as a result of the process. The treatment is supposed to prevent the babies from inheriting rare genetic diseases.

The treatment of combining DNA⁵ from a mother, father and an egg donor⁶ is supposed to help women who have a genetic problem that can be passed to their babies.

The problem is in the mitochondria of some women. Mitochondria are parts of some cells in the body that provide energy. However, scientists say the mitochondria in some women can pass genetic problems on to their babies. The genetic defects can cause muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and intellectual disabilities. Experts say the genetic problems affect about one in 200 children born in Britain.

So far, 32 patients have been given permission to receive the treatment. The process involves doctors taking genetic material from the mother's egg and then adding it to a donor's egg. The donor's egg has healthy mitochondria, but doctors remove the rest of its important DNA. Doctors fertilize⁷ the new egg, so it becomes an embryo⁴ and they put it into the mother's womb.

Scientists say using this process results in the new embryo having less than one percent of the genetic material from the egg's donor. Scientists at England's Newcastle University supervised the treatment.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said Tuesday that it was still "early days" of the treatment. But the government body said it hoped the doctors and scientists who worked on the treatment would soon publish more information.

The agency said all women undergoing the treatment must receive approval and must have no other way of preventing disease.

There are many critics of the treatment. They say there are other ways to prevent disease and the treatment has not been fully⁸ tested.

Others say this is the first step in creating "designer" babies for parents who want their children to be taller, smarter or have different looks than they do.

Robin⁹ Lovell-Badge is a stem cell expert at the Francis Crick Institute, a research center in London. Lovell-Badge said the babies need to be followed well into the future.

"It will be interesting to know," he said, "how well the technique worked...whether the babies are free of disease and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life."

One group of scientists published research this year expressing concerns that even a small amount of the problematic DNA from the mother could reproduce as the baby develops in the uterus. Lovell-Badge said scientists do not understand exactly why this happens and more work needs to be done.

Words in This Story

regulator –n. a government official or office that controls a public activity my making and enforcing rules

inherit –v. (biology) to receive genetic material from a parent

intellectual –adj. related to the mind or mental ability

womb –n. a common word for the organ that produces eggs and holds a fetus¹⁰ in women

stem cell –n. a special kind of cell that has the ability to become another kind of cell in the body

uterus –n. (medical) a term for the organ in a woman that holds the baby during pregnancy; womb

1 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

2 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

3 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

4 embryo   

n.胚胎，萌芽的事物

参考例句：

• They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
• The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。

5 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

6 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

7 fertilize   

v.使受精，施肥于，使肥沃

参考例句：

• Fertilizer is a substance put on land to fertilize it.肥料是施在地里使之肥沃的物质。
• Reading will fertilize his vocabulary.阅读会丰富他的词汇。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

10 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。