A baby is born, but this is no ordinary child. This baby has three genetic parents – DNA from a mother, a father and a third donor…
Scientists call it a breakthrough, a medical miracle that could prevent deadly diseases. Others see it as the beginning of a dangerous new era, one where humanity plays Frankenstein with genetics in ways we don’t yet understand.
Is this a life-saving innovation? Or are we storing up biological chaos that will only come to light when it’s too late?
This is the ‘Bizarre But True!’ story of the world’s first, three-parent babies!
For most of history, conception has been simple—one egg, one sperm, one child. But modern science has just redefined what’s possible. Now, for the first time ever, babies are being born with genetic material from not two…but three people!
The technique, known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), was developed to prevent devastating genetic disorders caused by faulty mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside our cells. While most of our DNA is housed in the nucleus, mitochondria contain a small but crucial set of genes, inherited exclusively from our mothers. But when those genes are damaged, the results can be catastrophic.
Mitochondrial diseases are rare but devastating, affecting vital organs like the brain, the heart, and muscles. Children born with these conditions often suffer from severe disabilities or even early death. And for affected mothers, the risk of passing on these disorders is unavoidable, until now…
Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have pioneered the technique which changes everything. By replacing faulty mitochondria with healthy ones from a third donor, they’ve created embryos free from inherited diseases. The resulting baby still carries over 99% of its DNA from their biological parents, but also has a tiny fraction, just 37 genes, from a third person too. It’s a tiny genetic change that has massive implications.
The UK became the first country ever to legalise the procedure in 2015, after years of debate and ethical scrutiny. Each case requires approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a government body and only a handful of babies have been born through the method so far. The exact number remains undisclosed, but the first confirmed UK birth happened in early 2023.
But while the UK cautiously embraced MDT, other countries have taken a different approach. The first successful case actually happened years earlier, in 2016, in a completely unexpected place…Mexico!
A Jordanian couple, desperate for a healthy child, sought out Dr. John Zhang, a fertility specialist at New Hope Fertility Center in New York. The mother was a carrier of Leigh Syndrome, a fatal neurological disorder that had already taken the lives of her two previous children. Knowing the risks, the couple turned to Zhang for help.
But there was a problem. MDT wasn’t approved for use in the United States. So Zhang and his team travelled to Mexico, where, as he put it, “there are no rules.” Using a variation of the technique called Spindle Nuclear Transfer, they successfully created an embryo free from mitochondrial disease. That embryo was implanted and nine months later, a healthy baby boy was born, the first human in history with DNA from three biological parents.
The medical world took notice. While Zhang was praised for the groundbreaking work, his decision to operate outside regulatory approval raised serious concerns. Had he crossed ethical lines? Was the world prepared for the potential consequences of genetic modification at this level?
And there were reasons for caution. A similar technique had been attempted in the 1990s when scientists injected donor mitochondria into fertilised eggs. The results were disastrous, some babies developed genetic disorders, leading the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the procedure.
And even today, the risks still remain. Though initial tests show that babies born through MDT are healthy, there’s the lingering fear that the faulty mitochondria, though greatly reduced, could multiply over time, reintroducing disease in later generations. Scientists don’t yet fully understand why this happens in some cases but not in others. It’s one of the many unanswered questions that keep experts on edge.
Some argue that safer alternatives exist. Women with mitochondrial disorders can avoid passing on the disease by using donor eggs or adopting. Others undergo genetic screening to select the embryos with the lowest levels of faulty mitochondria. But for parents desperate to have a child genetically related to them, these options aren’t always acceptable.
There’s also the question of how far we should take this technology. Right now, MDT is only used to prevent deadly diseases. But could it be the first step towards so-called designer babies? If we can replace faulty mitochondria, what’s stopping us from altering other genes to enhance intelligence, physical traits…or even lifespan? Once we open the door to genetic modification, where does it end?
The ethical concerns are enormous. Some fear that allowing genetic alterations, even for medical reasons, could start a slippery slope downwards where future generations are engineered for perfection. Others argue that by not using this technology, we’re condemning children to suffer from preventable diseases.
For now, the debate continues. The UK remains the only country with full legal approval, while other nations proceed cautiously. Meanwhile, the children born from this technique will be monitored for years to come with their health and development scrutinised in ways no other generation has ever experienced before.
What we do know is this: the birth of three-parent babies has changed the future of reproductive medicine forever. Whether it leads to a world free from genetic disease or opens a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences remains to be seen.
One thing is certain, science has given us the power to rewrite human inheritance. The question is: should we?
