The British Fertility Institute allowed doctors at a clinic in the northeast of England to create children from the DNA of three people to help two women not pass genetic diseases to their children.
Treatment removes problems associated with mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside the cell nucleus. Defective mitochondria can lead to various diseases, such as muscular dystrophy and multiple organ failure syndrome. The technique allowed by doctors uses the DNA of two women and one man.
The identities of the women being treated were hidden, but doctors emphasized that they were diagnosed with myoclonic epilepsy or MERRF syndrome, a rare mitochondrial disorder.
Last year, UK authorities licensed the new technology to Newcastle University, but approval is still required for individual patients.
This is the first UK approval for specific people, but the method has already been used before: in 2016, a child was born in Mexico using DNA from three people.
Critics of the procedure fear that third-party mitochondrial donation could become a hazard that will eventually be used by couples to alter the personality, eye color and other traits of their children.
GRIGORY PUSHKAREV