Government recommends long-term mitochondria research

The government’s draft regulations for reproductive mitochondria donation suggest that children born using these techniques should be encouraged to participate in follow-up research.

Published on 27 February, the proposed regulations stop short of mandating parents to enrol their children in follow-up studies, saying that the government believes it would not be acceptable to make subsequent participation in research programmes a condition for access to the treatment. The technique involves creating a healthy embryo using nuclear DNA from two parents, and mitochondria from a female egg donor, which would allow mothers with mitochondrial defects to have children without passing on severe genetic mutations.

However, the guidelines do acknowledge that the techniques involved could affect not only on children born using the procedure, but also their descendants. The guidelines state that longer-term medical follow-up research will be essential.