One child, three producers: Only the best of everyone
One child, three parents - this is not so unusual at first glance, after all, there are many families where besides the biological producers also other adults have taken on a parenting role. But that's exactly what a new law is about to come into force in the UK soon: three people will be allowed to share a concept of artificial insemination with a child that carries parts of it all over.
It is neither about medical megalomania, nor a targeted attack on the classic mother-father-child family: the procedure should only be allowed if a rare hereditary disease of the mother would also endanger the child. If the mother has a genetic defect in her cell power plants, the baby could later suffer from muscle weakness or diabetes.
A cell-powered donation from another woman in artificial insemination could compensate for this risk, the method has already worked in animal studies with monkeys. The side effect: The child gets another biological mother, which will remain anonymous.
Will such a child later have similarities with the "second mother"? This is very unlikely that the cell power plant donation will be so small (0.1 percent) relative to the residual genome of the "parent parent" that it will have virtually no impact on the child's development, save for the life-saving ones in many cases Blockade of hereditary disease, which would no longer be passed on to future generations.
Despite the advantages, the process is controversial: critics fear that this could only be another step towards "designer babies" and that affluent parents could have tailor-made children produced according to their own ideas within a few years.
If the law officially enters into force, according to the BBC, up to 150 babies a year could be conceived through the new process. Already next year, the first baby could be born with three parents. An introduction in Germany is unlikely until further notice - in this country, significantly stricter laws even prevent the donation of eggs, which is far from being such a strong interference in the genome.
