Three-parent baby treatment comes with severe health risks, according to new research

Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), a fertilization technique that facilitates the conception of a baby using DNA of three parents, has recently been making waves in the medical field. However, a recent study suggests that the procedure could pose severe health risks for the baby.

NPR reports that according to a study published in Nature by Shoukharat Mitalipov, head of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon health and Science University in Portland, mitochondrial replacement could fail in around 15 percent of cases. This means that there's a possibility that the treatment will not be effective in preventing the child from inheriting the fetal defects. It could also increase the risk of the child being vulnerable to new diseases.

Mitalipov cautioned that the procedure does not completely replace the faulty mitochondria with healthy ones. In this regard, a tiny percentage of the defective mitochondria, which comes from the mother, could linger. However, that tiny percentage can make a huge difference or even take over the whole cell.

MRT is an in-vitro fertilization procedure in which a donor's egg that has healthy mitochondria hosts the nucleus extracted from an egg of a mother with defective mitochondria. The egg is then fertilized by the father's sperm. After which. the ovum is implanted and carried until the baby is due to come out.

In the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority legalized the procedure back in December 2016 "in certain and specific cases."

In September 2016, fertility doctor John Zhang of New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan claimed to have helped a couple conceive from DNA of three different adults, with the three-parent baby born in May.

Many have called the development an important medical breakthrough, but it is not without critics. There are those who question if the treatment is ethical and safe.

Bioethics and Culture Network Jennifer Lahl told The Christian Post, "You have to harm one woman in the hopes of potentially helping somebody else. That doesn't sound like ethical science to me."

Arina Grossu of the Family Research Council in Washington D.C. also told the same publication that the treatment is "utterly disrespectful of human dignity on all counts."