In Greece, researchers have fathered a child with the genetic material of three people to help a barren woman to own offspring. The baby, a boy, was born on Tuesday morning weighing 2960 grams, the Greek treatment center Institute of Life (IVF) said. He was well.

The mother is therefore a 32-year-old Greek, in which several artificial insemination had previously failed. The method now used was successfully used in Mexico in 2016. At that time, however, the goal was to prevent the mother passing on a hereditary disease to the child, which harms the nervous system. The woman had previously transferred the disease to two other children, one of whom lived only eight months and the other only six years.

The current case is the first in which physicians have helped an otherwise infertile couple with the method to offspring. To witness the child, the Greek-Spanish medical team organized the egg donor egg because egg problems with the mother had previously prevented the pregnancies. They then took the donor egg cell nucleus, in which much of the DNA sits, and replaced it by the nucleus of a mother's egg.

99 percent mother and father, one percent egg donor

The resulting, zusammengepuzzelte egg cell fertilized the physicians with a sperm of the father. Then they put the embryo into the uterine 32-year-olds, this time the pregnancy succeeded. Through the process, however, the child carries the genetic material of three persons:

  • A majority, more than 99 percent, comes from mother and father and is in the cell nucleus.
  • In addition, however, a small part of the genome, just under one percent, is contained outside the cell nucleus in the mitochondria. This genetic material comes from the egg donor in the child.

"As Greek scientists, we are very proud to announce an innovation in artificial insemination," says Panagiotis Psathas, director of the Institute of Life. Now women who have failed several in vitro fertilization would have the opportunity to have their own child.

However, extending treatment to infertile women also raises ethical issues. For example, the medical director of the University of Oxford, Tim Child, expressed "worried". "The risks of this technique are not fully understood," he explained. From his point of view, the procedure is "acceptable" when applied to women with certain hereditary diseases. "But not in this situation," he added, looking at the Greek patient.