Fertility doctors in Greece and Spain say they have produced a baby from three people in order to overcome a woman’s infertility, BBC has reported.
The baby boy was born weighing 2.9kg (6lbs) on Tuesday (09.04.19). The mother and child are said to be in good health. The doctors say they are “making medical history” which could help infertile couples around the world. The experimental form of IVF uses an egg from the mother, sperm from the father, and another egg from a donor woman.
It was developed to help families affected by deadly mitochondrial diseases which are passed down from mother to baby. It has been tried in only one such case a family from Jordan and that provoked much controversy. The patient was a 32-year-old woman in Greece who had endured four unsuccessful cycles of IVF. She is now a mother, but her son has a tiny amount of his genetic makeup from the donor woman as mitochondria have their own DNA.
Dr. Panagiotis Psathas, President of the Institute of Life in Athens, said: “A woman’s inalienable right to become a mother with her own genetic material became a reality. “We are very proud to announce an international innovation in assisted reproduction, and we are now in a position to make it possible for women with multiple IVF failures or rare mitochondrial genetic diseases to have a healthy child.”
The Greek team was working with the Spanish center Embryotools, which has announced that 24 other women are taking part in the trial and eight embryos are ready to be implanted.
In February 2018, the doctors in Newcastle, England who pioneered the technology were given permission to create the UK’s first three-person babies.
