Woman Unable to Conceive Gives Birth Using ‘Three-Parent’ IVF Technique

A 34-year-old Ukranian woman, who was unable to conceive, has given birth to a baby boy using the ‘three-parent’ IVF technique.

Scientists claim that through the ‘three-parent’ IVF technique, infertile couples could still have children.

The Times reported that in the case of the woman, her eggs were fertilised using her partner’s sperm, then their combined genes were transferred into a donor egg. This allowed for the child to have the same genetic identity as his parents, but has a small amount of different DNA from the second woman.

The woman gave birth to her son on January 5. Dr Valery Zukin, who led the work at the Kiev clinic revealed that initial tests showed that the baby is ‘completely healthy’.

It was also reported that previously, the woman had undergone four cycles of IVF, for over a decade to start her family, but all had been unsuccessful.

Dr Zukin, who has another 29-year-old woman expecting to give birth in March, told the newspaper that the treatment could help women whose embryos stopped growing.

“It’s like the opening of a new era.

“Before, we could only increase the selection of embryos. But for us this moment opens up the possibility of augmenting embryos,” he said.

Dr Zukin added that this was the first time pronuclear transfer had been used to give birth to a child.

However, Professor Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said it was ‘something that needs to be extremely carefully thought through and treated with caution’.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk