A new piece in The New York Times Magazine looks at the growing controversy surrounding three-parent fertilization. The procedure introduces a donor's cytoplasm into the mother's egg, potentially adding a third parent's genetic data to the child, but effectively treating mitochondrial disorders and a range of infertility issues. As the science develops, it's also become the center of a heated battle around genetic ethics. Three-parent IVF is the first technique to alters the germ line, disrupting the natural flow of genetic information from parent to child. As a result, many are already casting it as the first step towards genetic engineering. Three-parent fertilization already works as medicine, and could make a huge difference for the millions of women struggling to conceive, but ethical questions are still holding it back. Now that we have the power, should we use it?
Is this procedure the first step toward genetic engineering?
Is this procedure the first step toward genetic engineering?
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