LONDON(AFP) - A fertility technique that uses DNA from three parents to create an embryo could become legal in Britain after a public consultation on its ethical implications was launched on Monday.

The results of the consultation will help inform a decision by the government on whether to legalise the technique as early as next year -- potentially making Britain the first country in the world to hold human trials into the treatment, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The IVF-based technique is designed to avoid serious mitochondrial diseases inherited on the maternal side, such as muscular dystrophy, by replacing some of the mitochondrial DNA with healthy DNA from the so-called “third parent”.

One in 200 children are born each year with a form of disease in their mitochondrial DNA, the structures within cells that convert energy from food into a form that the body can use.

Many of those children have mild to no symptoms, and may never even have the disease diagnosed, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which is overseeing the consultation, said in a statement.

Others can have severe, or even life-shortening, symptoms such as muscular weakness or heart disease. Up to one in 6,500 people born in Britain each year suffer severe symptoms.

Scientists are developing a technique to remove some of the mitochondrial DNA of the mother and replace it with DNA from the “third parent” to create a healthy embryo.

All of a human‘s visible characteristics are encoded in DNA found in the cell nucleus, so any child born using the technique under consideration will only bear the features of two parents.

The technique is currently lawful in a laboratory but the embryos cannot be used in treatment, the HFEA said, calling the treatment “uncharted territory”.

“Any child born following mitochondria replacement would share DNA with three people, albeit a tiny amount with the donor,” the organisation said in a statement.

“These changes would affect the germ line, meaning the donor’s mitochondrial DNA would be passed on to future generations.

Chairman Lisa Jardine said: ”We find ourselves in uncharted territory, balancing the desire to help families have healthy children with the possible impact on the children themselves and wider society.“

Jardine called the decision one of ”enormous public interest“.

It furthers the debate on ”designer babies“ and the morality of engineering embryos which was first fuelled by the original forays into IVF treatment.

There are also fears over how the ”third parent“ would affect the child‘s sense of identity, and what rights both the child and the third parent would have.

The consultation will run until December 7.

<관련 한글 기사>

유전 공학 어디까지, ‘세 부모 아기’ 만든다

영국 정부가 생명 윤리에 대한 공개 논의를 거친 후 세 명의 부모에게서 DNA를 추출하여 인공 수정을 하는 기술을 합법화 할 가능성이 생겼다.

여론 수렴이 끝나면 영국 정부는 이 기술을 빠르면 내년 초에 합법화할 수 있다. 그렇게 되면 영국은 세계 최초로 이 인공수정 기술을 시행하는 국가가 될 것이라고 현지 언론은 전했다.

이 기술은 부모가 세포 내 기관인 미토콘드리아에 이상이 있을 경우 제3자에게서 건강한 미토콘드리아를 공여 받아 인공수정을 하는 방식이다.

매 해 200명의 아기 중 한 명이 미토콘드리아 DNA에 문제가 생긴 채로 태어나는데 대부분의 아기가 거의 증상이 없어서 병의 진단을 아예 받지 못하는 경우가 허다하다.

심한 경우엔 근육무력증이나 심장병 같은 증상으로 수명이 단축되기도 한다.

미토콘드리아는 모계로 유전된다. 그래서 시술은 모친의 난자에서 세포핵만 떼내 핵을 제거한 공여 난자에 이식하거나 부모의 생식세포를 우선 수정시킨 뒤 수정란의 핵을 공여 난자에 이식하는 방식으로 진행된다.

세 부모 인공 수정 기술은 실험실에서는 현재 허용되고 있으나 실제로 임상에 적용시키는 것은 불법이다.

(코리아헤럴드)