Danielle Messer carried a mutation that left her son severely disabled. So before she rolled the dice on another pregnancy, she tracked down an 'egg specialist' to inquire about a genetic surgery that could change her lineage forever. (From 2021)
the only scientist pursuing mitochondrial replacement. A formidable group at Columbia University had been developing techniques for the treatment, along with a group at Newcastle University in England. Indeed, a debate had been unfolding in the United Kingdom over what the press called “three-parent babies.” Unlike the US, the UK had a formal scientific and bioethics process to discuss this attempt at germ-line modification.
Matters unfolded very differently in the US. Early on, germ-line modification—like embryonic stem cell research before it—got entangled in right-to-life politics and bioethical controversy.
“It drives me crazy when all these opposing opinion people write stuff about the slippery slope and designer babies,” she says. “That’s not even what this particular thing is. It’s not the nuclear DNA that you’re messing with, first of all. And it’s for people who have a known genetic mutation that don’t want to have an unhealthy child and have their child suffer. It’s not because I want a blond-haired, blue-eyed football player, or a cheerleader, or Ivy League whatever.
The Oregon researchers were stunned by the congressional ban too. Because the rider now prevented the FDA from even acknowledging their proposed clinical trial, Mitalipov’s group eventually began to look outside the US. They explored collaborating with doctors in Thailand and China but quickly learned that wasn’t possible, because those countries forbid egg donation. Messer said she was ready to fly anywhere in the world to undergo the replacement therapy.