Three-Parent Embryos A Way to Avoid Diseases?

One baby…three parents.  Researchers in Oregon are in the first in the country to create an embryo with genetic material from three people.  The work could provide a key to having healthy babies in the future.

FOX News Radio’s Jane Metzler reports:

It’s very controversial, but scientists at Oregon Health & Sciences University say someday this technique could prevent babies from inheriting incurable diseases.  Using DNA from a man and two women, they have produced 13 human embryos.

The scientists say the embryos will not be implanted to produce babies, but the DNA transplant technique has resulted in the 2009 birth of four still-healthy monkeys.  A French foundation is funding the research, which replaces roughly 1% of the defective genetic material with healthier mitochondrial DNA.  In addition to health concerns, fears it could lead to so-called “designer babies.”

Jane Metzler, FOX News Radio.