Wednesday 23 December 2015

3 "Biological Parents"? What all are the benefits?



Have you heard of this word - Three parent IVF Treatment ?

This treatment is invented to prevent the new born babies to get affected to some inheriting genetic disorders such as liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular weakness, fatal heart problems etc. by replacing affected mitochondria with healthy mitochondria from donor.

Last Month UK lawmakers passed a law for doing 3 parent IVF Treatment. UK is the first country in the world to try this IN VITRO Technique using DNA from 3 people. The techniques will avoid passing certain genetically inherited diseases. 

Mitochondria is powerhouse cells of the body. It is inherited from mothers. Using this treatment women can have a baby without mitochondrial disease. Mitochondrial DNA does not help in determining an individual's traits, but if it is affected, it may cause conditions like seizure, deafness, blindness, weakness. Mitochondria have only 37 genes while there are 24000 in the human genome. Children with mitochondrial problem usually don't survive up to adulthood.

In this IVF treatment, healthy egg with affected mitochondria is transferred to body of egg(nucleus removed). When this egg gets fertilized, it will contain genes of mother, father and mitochondrial dna from donor women. Three parent babies could be born within one year in UK. 

Many organization opposed this move saying that it is the stepping stone of designer baby. Some also claim that babies will be sterile.

I get confused when thinking about whether Indian government will approve 3 parent babies! I am sure that India has become infertility treatment hub if it comes to india . Among all the states infertility treatment in Tamil Nadu is cheaper.

IVF treatment is most successful reproductive technologies. IVF evolved to new level with this 3 parent baby technique. Many people across the county comes for IVF treatment in Tamil Nadu, if this new techniques become successful and approved in our country, then large number of people will come to madurai to try this.