"Three - Parent" fertility treatment - A scientific process with serious ethical issues

"Three - Parent" fertility treatment - A scientific process with serious ethical issues

“Three – Parent” Fertility also known as mitochondrial replacement technology, the procedure involves DNA from a man’s sperm and woman’s egg and a healthy mitochondrial DNA from another woman. This process is often also termed as IVF ‘designer babies’.

For:

- The mitochondrial replacement technology can help in preventing diseases like muscular dystrophy, liver failure, brain disorders and fatal heart problems which are often inherited when a woman carries a faulty mitochondria
- Families suffering from severe mitochondrial diseases, this procedure will help those families in having healthy children

Against:

- The concept of parenting and family would be wrecked as all the 3 parents will be in a position to claim legally the guardianship of the child
- Identity crisis and social rejections would be common for a ‘designer baby’ based on his family background, hence increasing the probabilities of psychological ailments
- The mixing of three different DNA, may prevent mitochondrial syndromes, but may result in more intricate treacherous side effects defeating the sole purpose
- The treatment fails to abide the government law ‘that we should not alter human beings genetically’
- The full medical implications are yet to be discovered of this technique as it is yet to be implemented on an individual

Conclusion:

Things which involve modifying the natural make up of things or human beings often lead to destruction rather than construction