From Anna Dyer
You discuss the ethical and legal issues arising from the creation of “three-parent” embryos by assisted reproduction (14 June, p 28). A stated problem with this method is that changes made to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can be passed down through the generations. But there is a simple solution.
As mtDNA is transmitted exclusively from the egg cytoplasm, all embryos created by this method could be genetically screened and only male embryos implanted.
These presumably healthy sons, once grown up, could not pass on this third-party DNA to any of their subsequent children, who would only inherit mtDNA from their mother.
The numbers of children born by this technique would be very low, so this sex selection would bear no impact on a country’s overall sex ratio.
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I feel that this is a key safeguard that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) must debate before the final legislation is drafted.
Fareham, Hampshire, UK
