Advertisement

  1. National

UK moves closer to 'three-parent babies' after historic vote

Britain has moved a step closer to becoming the first country to allow the creation of babies with DNA from three different people after MPs overwhelmingly backed new legislation.

MPs voted in favour of mitochondrial donation techniques by 382 to 128 in the historic Commons vote.

View all 20 updates ›

Pro-life group: This is a 'sad day for science and ethics'

Josephine Quintavalle, from the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Core), released this statement on what she called a "sad, sad day for both science and ethics":

It is hard not to feel despair that so many elected members of Parliament could agree to such a dangerous and unethical re-writing of human biology, no matter how virtuous the end objective of creating children without mitochondrial disease.

We have always argued in favour of seeking cures for mitochondrial disease but research applications in the United Kingdom will be aimed not at cures, but rather at creating a different kind of human embryo hopefully not carrying the condition.

– Josephine Quintavalle, Core

More on this story