Hazel McHaffie

Mitochondrial donation – a lifeline or an historic mistake?

Imagine you’re in your late thirties. You have one child of eighteen months, Mia. Beautiful, much loved, and long awaited. But Mia is suffering from a devastating disease which is damaging her brain and other organs, she can’t eat or sit up or smile, she has frequent seizures. More than that, you know that you, her Mum, carry this disease; you are the one who passed it on to her. She has at most a couple of years to live. Before she even reaches school age you will be attending her funeral. And any future children would be very likely to inherit the same condition and go the same way.

Now imagine a doctor tells you you could have a child who is healthy and free from this terrible disease. Indeed that he could wipe it from your family entirely. For ever.Newborn baby

Now you’re talking! It’s a no-brainer surely. Who in their right mind would say no?

Ahh … well, there are some people – a lot of people actually – who would say to you: ‘No, I don’t want you to be allowed to have this healthy baby. And I’m going to campaign with all my might to stop it being legal for you to do so. I have my healthy normal kids, but you are condemned to heartache and loss because of a quirk in your genetic makeup. And my moral indignation trumps your biological rights.’

Yep, you’ve twigged. We’re talking about mitochondrial diseases. The mitochondria’s the bit outside the nucleus which doesn’t pass on any personal attributes but which helps to produce energy; the so-called power house of the cell. And faults in this area can result in terrible life-limiting diseases. Journalists talk about ‘three-parent babies’, but that’s an emotive and misleading and singularly unhelpful term. Does anyone refer to infants born via artificial insemination by donor in this way? or surrogate pregnancies using donor eggs? and yet they are more three-parent than the mitochondrial variety. Because only a miniscule amount of mitochondrial DNA (less than 0.001%) is from the donor, none of it responsible for the characteristics of the resultant child; almost all of what the infant inherits is in the nucleus, and 100% of that comes from the parental couple themselves.

On Tuesday this week parliament debated whether or not the UK should become the first country to permit mitochondrial donation to eradicate severe debilitating diseases of the mitochondria. Permission was approved. It’s worth noting that the UK has one of the most rigorous regulatory systems in the world when it comes to reproductive medicine and these various stages of consultation and approval are one aspect of that rigour.

Once again, though, up jump the zealots and pontificators and detractors – they’re attracted to developments in the field of fertility like iron filings to a magnet. But this time it’s not just the usual extreme suspects who are objecting, even the Church of England spokesmen on medical ethics are using terms like ‘irresponsible’, ‘an ethical watershed’. Why? QuestioningWell, at its heart is this factor: the procedure will fundamentally change the genetic makeup of an embryo in such a way that it will alter the inherited characteristics not just of one single individual but of future generations: modification of the germ line. The changes will be passed on; there’s no going back. And who really knows what might result from that? Nobody, that’s who. Nobody can guarantee the long term effects, because we have no data (human at least). None exist. It’s a new procedure (although in reality work has been going on for 15 years behind the scenes in preparation for this moment), but potential increased risks such as premature aging and cancer have been mooted. OK, three scientific reviews have concluded that it is unlikely to be unsafe, but it’s also a fact that scientists do not fully understand the interaction between the nuclear DNA and the mitochondria, which leaves some important questions unanswered.

However, for me this balance of risks and benefits falls into the same category as Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill. When the chips are down, when there is nothing but bleakness, tragedy and death ahead, isn’t there a case to be made for well-informed patients/parents to take a calculated risk? We aren’t talking about offering this procedure to the rank and file of childbearing couples after all; only a minority for whom the alternative is too terrible, too heartbreaking, to contemplate. Don’t all scientific discoveries take a leap of faith at some point? Of course the researchers and scientists need to keep working to explore optimal conditions and refine techniques and enhance safety, but that’s true of even the now-common procedures like IVF. If mitochondrial donation is allowed, the children born this way will need to be monitored closely for the rest of their lives, and their children after them. Every step will be scrutinised minutely.

The HFEA Act requires that the embryo be treated with special respect. Quite right too. Few would argue. Misunderstandings are much more to do with the perceptions of what is proposed. So let’s clarify. Scientists are NOT trying to enhance humans in any way, they are not even trying to alter a child’s characteristics. They are aiming to prevent crippling and often fatal diseases and avoid couples now and in the future suffering the incomparable heartache of losing their children in these tragic potentially-avoidable circumstances.

Religious adherents may protest loudly, and indeed in our democratic society, they have a right to their opinions, but what of the Biblical injunctions: Do to others as you would they should do to you, and judge not that you be not judged? Should a Jew or a Muslim or a Roman Catholic or an evangelical Christian or whoever impose their specific viewpoint on Mia’s Mum? On society in general? These are terribly difficult and painful moral and personal issues which affect couples at a very fundamental level. What gives others the right to dictate, I should like to know?

Religious objections aside, a valid sticking point for a lot of people is one of safety and timing. Pre-clinical safety tests have not yet been concluded, and until the results of those investigations are known, it does seem premature to rush through new legislation.

So, we aren’t there yet. Now that the new legislation has passed this week’s hurdle, it comes before the House of Lords on 23 February. If it’s successful then there follows a careful and exact and rigorous process of trials. Caution is the name of the game just as it was with IVF; scientists agonised waiting to see if those babies were healthy. It’s possible the first human trials could begin in October this year, with the first babies born in autumn next year.

The idea that this is some form of malign genetic manipulation is nonsensical, but I did smile at the terse letter to the Telegraph from a man in Aylesbury:

GM crops, bad; GM children, good. How very strange.

He could go far in the literary world but perhaps not the scientific.

What do you think?

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6 Responses to “Mitochondrial donation – a lifeline or an historic mistake?”

  • I think that I know a lot more about this now I’ve read your post – thank you for such a clear account. When I first read about it the headline alarmed me – but that’s journalism for you.

    I hope it’s successful.

    • Hazel says:

      Thank you, Margaret. I’m glad it helped. I have a deal of sympathy for journalists – they’re only doing their job, and sensational headlines sell newspapers. But there’s a lot at stake here – hence my wee contribution. Just wish I had their size of audience, huh?!! Feel free to pass the word on.

  • Hamilton Wilson says:

    you certainly haven’t presented this as an open question – your own forceful and emotive language “threatens” us to accept your point of view, which of course is more medically and ethically informed than mine would be!
    That said, as a previous contributor has put it, I now know more about the how and why of what is proposed than I did before, and am more inclined to accept the procedure as acceptable and desirable – thanks!

    • Hazel says:

      Ahhh … it wasn’t my intention to ‘threaten’ anyone, Hamilton, just redress the balance somewhat. My personal blog is one of the few places where I get to offer my own opinion!

  • Nigel says:

    Hi Hazel,

    Yes, I’m with you. Agree with the others that I feel more informed having read your blog, although I was aware of other debates on the radio. I think it’s important to frame it as a choice, one which has no right or wrong, just one which fits with your own conscience or not , depending on how you see things. I’m all for more choice.

    • Hazel says:

      You’re absolutely right, Nigel: it should be a matter of personal choice. But the procedure has to be approved before it can be offered as a choice, and that’s where we are at the moment. Thanks for your comments.

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