The Australian Senate voted this week to allow the passing of Maeve's law, a bill that legalises mitochondrial donation, which is an IVF technique that uses part of a donor egg to replace faulty mitochondria in the parent's egg.
Australia is only the second country to pass a bill overseeing this technique following the UK's lead in 2015, and the decision has been praised by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. However, mitochondrial donation is considered by some to be controversial in part because it involves the transfer of DNA from a donor.
So, what is mitochondrial donation, and what do Australian scientists think?
Our cells require energy to function, and they get this energy from small structures inside them known as mitochondria. These mitochondria contain a small amount of DNA which is passed down from mothers to their children.
If the mother's mitochondria are faulty this will likely be passed onto her children, and that can lead to potentially fatal diseases.
Mitochondrial donation can prevent these diseases by taking the nucleus from a fertilised egg with faulty mitochondria, and inserting it into a healthy donor egg that has had the nucleus removed. Because the mitochondria in the donor egg contributes a small amount of DNA from that donor – technically the baby will have DNA from 3 people – although it is 99.9 per cent is from two.
One type of Mitochondrial donation. Source: Australian Science Media Centre - CC 2.0
Speaking in an AusSMC expert reaction, scientists have been largely supportive of the new legislation.
"The carriage of this Bill gives families real hope that they will be able to have what most of us take for granted, namely being able to have a happy and healthy baby," said Professor John Christodoulou from the University of Melbourne. He is confident that mitochondrial donation would be carried out to the highest possible standards in Australia.
Professor David Thorburn from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, was also supportive of the bill and emphasised the point that regulatory safeguards would ensure that mitochondrial donation would be conducted in an ethical way.
"The regulatory environment has safeguards that will ensure it can only be used for the intended purpose and the reforms are consistent with international standards and best practice," he said.
Most scientists agree that these standards and safeguards are needed to ensure that mitochondrial donation can be carried out in an ethical manner.
Australia is only the second country in the world to enact this sort of legislation, leading one expert to raise concerns that the technology is yet to be fully tested for safety and potential side effects.
"The passing of this legislation is at least five years too early, and we should wait until the data are available to validate or otherwise the technology," said Professor Jus St. John who leads the Mitochondrial Genetics Group at the University of Adelaide.
"Ultimately, our responsibility is to ensure that any children born using this technology would be healthy and lead a normal life and not be hindered by other disorders," he said.
Mitochondrial donation may also have repercussions that extend beyond the IVF clinic.
According to bioethicist Professor Jackie Leach Scully from the University of New South Wales, we also need to consider the role of the women who donate their mitochondria to another woman’s embryo.
"What kind of relationship exists between the donor and the child? How do we protect donors from being exploited? Could children born by this technology be stigmatised? Important questions like these will need to be discussed on a societal level by all stakeholders," she said.
You can read the full AusSMC expert reaction here.
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