The U.K. Department of Health has recently released the draft rules for future legislation on three-person in vitro fertilization. The experimental method combines the genetic material of two female eggs and male sperm to prevent mitochondrial disease, a painful and often fatal genetic condition that diminishes the cell’s ability to efficiently produce energy. Symptoms can include muscle weakness, blindness, epilepsy, organ failure, heart failure, which can lead to death.  The United Kingdom has taken the right steps to address relevant ethical issues and is on the path to preventing this debilitating disease that affects one in every 6,500 babies.

There are currently two methods to achieve fertilization of a healthy donor egg with the parent’s genetic material — egg repair and embryo repair. The former involves removing the nucleus, which contains most genetic material, from the mother’s egg and transplanting it into the donor’s egg with healthy mitochondria. The egg is then fertilized after the mother’s nucleus is implanted into the donor’s egg. The latter involves removing the fertilized nuclei and transplanting it into the donor’s egg with healthy mitochondria.

The procedures raise major ethical questions. Accordingly, in 2011 the Health Department requested both public consultation and guidance from the United Kingdom’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. The public’s primary concern was the use of genetic material from three individuals. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent review body, addressed this issue in a report declaring “mitochondrial donation does not indicate, either biologically or legally, any notion of the child having either a ‘third parent’ or a ‘second mother’” due to the extremely small amount of genetic material, less than 0.1 percent, in the donor egg. More importantly, mitochondrial DNA has no impact on a child’s physical and mental characteristics.

Another concern is the techniques’ similarity to cloning and the fear of genetic modification leading to designer babies.  While these methods are close to cloning, the results are not. The children would be genetically unique and related only to their parents. Three-person IVF does not alter any of the genes involved — it simply moves them. The worry that this path will lead to rampant, frivolous genetic alterations is well-addressed by HFEA, which will review, selectively approve and monitor every three-person IVF application. Only cases in which the mother is a carrier for a significant mitochondrial abnormality that will result in a serious physical or mental condition will be approved to proceed.

Questions should always be asked about the ethics and long-term effects of genetic modification, but well-tested disease prevention must be allowed to be implemented efficiently. By pre-emptively addressing ethical concerns and establishing regulatory control, the United Kingdom has greatly simplified the legislative path for the approval of three-person IVF.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, March 11 print edition. Tess Woosley is a staff columnist. Scientific Society is published every Tuesday. Email her at [email protected].