Child of 3 parents was born in Mexico

Most recently, scientists talked about the possibility of creating a child with DNA from three parents (two women and one man) and now in the journal New Scientist there was a news about the birth of such an unusual baby.

At this point, the child is already 5 months old, he was born in Mexico from Muslim parents. Throughout pregnancy and until now, a team of specialists from the United States monitors the state of the baby. By law, research with donor DNA and correct genetic mutations is allowed only in the UK, and other countries continue to have heated debates about whether a person has the right to interfere in such processes.

The genetic mother of a unique child is the carrier of a rare hereditary disease - the Leia syndrome, which affects the central nervous system and in most cases leads to death in a few field years after the onset of the disease, especially the progression of the disease is dangerous for children under 3 years. The woman already gave birth to two children, but the disease struck both her babies - the first child survived to 8 years old, the second did not live up to 1 year.

In order to give birth to a healthy baby, the couple decided to turn to Dr. John Zhang, who works with the "3-parent child" technique, which will prevent various hereditary diseases.

There are several methods to correct defects in genes, but in this case Dr. Zhang decided to use the method of spindle-shaped nuclear transfer, because the religious beliefs of the parents did not allow to destroy the embryo that is used in other ways. The method consists in the fact that the nucleus from the maternal ovum is transferred to the donor egg, from which the own nucleus is previously removed, and after that it is fertilized by the sperm of the father. In total, Dr. Zhang created 5 embryos, but only 1 of them developed normally, it was he who became the baby Abrahim in the future.

All procedures were conducted in Mexico, as under US law such manipulation is prohibited. A newborn baby of a Muslim couple with DNA from 3 parents is not the first in the world. Similar experiments were conducted in the 90s in the United States, but because of the development of genetic defects in children, experiments were banned.

It is worth noting that Dr. Zhang also can not give a guarantee that in the future, Abrahim will not have any deviations.

Dr. Zhang and colleagues examined the state of Abraham, and also checked the DNA of the child and found that the percentage of mutations in them is less than 1%, which means that the likelihood of developing serious diseases is extremely low. But Dr. Zhang's colleagues are sure that it's too early to announce the success of the method, we need to conduct several more similar experiments and observe the development of other children with DNA from 3 parents.

But repeated experiments of a similar nature may not happen again, as ethical and scientific discussions continue in the world about the manipulation of genes. Some critics said that scientists claim the role of God in conducting similar studies, and even compare scientists with the Nazis who tried to create an "ideal person."

In turn, scientists working with DNA state that their experiments have nothing to do with either cloning or selection in relation to humans. The main goal of their work is not to create a superman with certain abilities or abilities, but to give birth to a healthy child. With the new technique "A child from 3 parents", tens of thousands of women will be able to experience the joy of motherhood, and newborns will be saved from serious pathologies and diseases.

Despite all the feedback on their work, Dr. Zhang is confident that he has made a breakthrough in medicine, and regarding the ethics of the matter Dr. Zhang said that the most important thing is life.

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