Every year around a hundred children are born in Britain with seriously damaged mitochondria, those parts of a living cell that synthesise the chemical fuel that powers the rest of it. It is often a death sentence. Those who survive live a debilitating existence in which the tissues of their bodies-brains, muscles, nerves and the rest-are chronically short of the energy they need to function. There is no cure. But there might be a way to help the roughly 2,500 women whose future children would be at risk. On February 3rd the House of Commons voted, by 382 to 182, to make Britain the first country in the world to permit "mitochon-drial donation", a form of in-vitro fertilisation (ivf) designed to ensure that those children can be born free of the condition. It was a free, unwhipped vote because, despite the potential benefits, the issue is contentious. The procedure involves transplanting the nucleus from an egg cell with damaged mitochondria into another egg with healthy ones. That second egg is provided by a donor.
展开▼
