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Two moms and a dad give birth to healthy 'three-person baby'

The New York Daily News - 4/11/2019

April 11-- Apr. 11--Oh baby!

A team of doctors from Greece and Spain announced the birth of a healthy baby boy who was conceived via an experimental form of in vitro fertilization (IVF). DNA from the egg of one woman was put into the egg of a donor woman, and then fertilized using the father's sperm. The procedure, known as maternal spindle transfer, is one of three types of mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT).

The boy was born in Athens, Greece Tuesday weighing 6 pounds. Both the child and the 32-year-old mother are in good health, the doctors said in a statement.

A Spanish company called Embryotools announced the pregnancy in January following the first known trial of the procedure. The study enrolled 25 women under 40 who had been diagnosed with "infertility problems due to poor egg quality," and who had at least two previous failed IVF attempts. Since the technique wasn't approved in Spain, the company collaborated with a fertility clinic in Athens called the Institute of Life.

Dr. Panagiotis Psathas, president of the Institute of Life, celebrated the milestone.

"Today, for the first time in the world, a woman's inalienable right to become a mother with her own genetic material became a reality," he said in a statement. His team is committed to help "couples facing fertility issues to have children with their own DNA, without having recourse to egg donors."

Dr. Nuno Costa-Borges, the co-founder of Embryotools, added that "the completely successful and safe implementation of the Maternal Spindle Transfer method -- for the first time in medical history -- is a revolution in assisted reproduction." The team's triumph will "help countless women to realize their dream of becoming mothers with their own genetic material."

The controversial technique is currently banned in the U.S. According to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF), a Pennsylvansa-based non-profit organization that provides education and support to mitochondrial disease patients, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned human clinical trials in the U.S. to avoid the transmission of mitochondrial disease from one generation to the next.

Marcy Darnovsky, who heads the Center for Genetics and Society, a U.S.-based watchdog group, told NPR she finds the trend "pretty troubling" and an "irresponsible kind of human experimentation."

Dr. Costa-Borges's team is hailing the Greek baby as the first successful procedure, but according to CNN, the technique was used in Ukraine in 2017 and in Mexico the year before.

In April 2016. Dr. John Zhang, founder of New Hope Fertility Center in New York performed part of the procedure in his clinic located in Guadalajara, Mexico, since the technique is banned in the U.S. He's now working with a clinic in Ukraine where patients can try the technique for $15,000.

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