Three-person Baby Boy Born in Greece

A team of doctors from Greece and Spain have reported the birth of a baby using DNA from three people. The baby boy has inherited the genetic material from two women and a man.

How did the new IVF method work?

Doctors used an egg from the infertile mother, the father’s sperm and another woman’s egg to conceive the baby boy. The doctors transferred genetic material with chromosomes from the mother to the egg of a donor whose own genetic material had been removed in a process.
A similar DNA switching technique was adopted in Mexico in 2016 to avoid transmission of a mother’s hereditary illness to her child. But this case from Greece is unique owing to the fact that for the first time an IVF (in vitro fertilization) technique using DNA from three people has been deployed to allow a mother otherwise unable to conceive to have a child.

In-vitro Fertilisation

In-vitro Fertilization is an artificial reproduction technique wherein the process of fertilization happens by extracting eggs, retrieving a sperm sample, and then manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory set-up. The embryo(s) is then transferred to the uterus.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2019