Britain has breached EU law and "violated human dignity" by allowing the creation of three-parent babies, MEPs have claimed. The Daily Telegraph reports that the European Commission has been asked to step in to prevent mitochondrial DNA transfer which will allow the genetic material of a ‘second mother’ to be used to repair faults.
Earlier this month, Britain became the first country in the world to allow the procedure which will prevent conditions like muscular dystrophy. The first babies could be born next year. But 50 MEPs have written to UK Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to withdraw legislation and warning him that the new laws breach the EU's Clinical Trials Directive which ban genetic alterations which can be passed down to future generations.
Under the new rules, IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) clinics will be able to replace an egg's defective mitochondrial DNA with healthy DNA from a female donor's egg. It is controversial because it would result in babies having DNA from three people – and effectively, two mothers. Around 2,500 women in Britain could benefit from the new treatment, amounting to around 125 babies born each year.
The report says although the laws were passed it will be up to the fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), to decide whether a treatment can go ahead on a case-by-case basis.
[link url="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11425602/Three-parent-babies-Britain-has-breached-EU-law-MEPs-warn.html"]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]