Double-mother embryo plan
Sep 9 2005 By Graeme Whitfield, The Journal
Scientists from the North have won permission for pioneering research that could lead to the birth of the world's first baby with "two mothers".
The groundbreaking work at Newcastle University will help scientists carry out research into preventing genetic diseases that can be passed from mothers to children such as muscular dystrophy and strokes.
But the move is already proving controversial because it involves mixing genetic material from two mothers and has the eventual aim of creating a baby who would technically have three parents.
Because the second woman in the process would only be donating the shell of an embryo, the baby born would not inherit any genetic characteristics from her. Applications to licence the research have twice been turned down by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Agency (HFEA), the body that oversees genetic science in the UK.
But now that refusal has been overturned after the HFEA took advice from a number of eminent scientists - including Professor John Burn, also of Newcastle University.
That decision allows Professor Doug Turnbull, professor of neurology at Newcastle University, and Dr Mary Herbert, scientific director of Newcastle Fertility Centre at the city's Centre for Life, to carry out the research, which is funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
But pro-life groups have hit out at the decision to grant a licence for the work.
A spokesman for Newcastle University said: "The eventual aim of the research would be a baby with two mothers but there's an awful lot of work before we get to that stage. The baby would not inherit any characteristics from the second mother, it would only have healthy material from the second mother." The scientists at Newcastle want to carry out research into mitochondria, complex structures which exist in almost every cell of the body that produce most of the energy required to grow and live.
But Josephine Quintavalle, from pro-life campaigners Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "This shows once again that the HFEA does not have any regard for public consultation and the views of the public."
