{"id":843,"date":"2026-08-04T11:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/?p=843"},"modified":"2026-08-04T11:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:14:11","slug":"geneethics-mitochondrial-replacement-and-designer-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/?p=843","title":{"rendered":"[GeneEthics] Mitochondrial Replacement and designer babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mitochondrial replacement (<\/span>MR aka<\/span> “three-parent IVF” <\/span>or mito donation<\/span>) is <\/span>out of the <\/span>lab. <\/span>Proponents say MR i<\/span>s a targeted way to reduce, <\/span>not eliminate,<\/span> the risks o<\/span>f<\/span> mito dis<\/span>ease being transmitted from mother to child <\/span>when she has<\/span> her own biologically related offspring<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

GeneEthics\u2019 <\/span>chief <\/span>concern <\/span>is<\/span> that <\/span>MR also<\/span> intentionally <\/span>crosses<\/span> into<\/span> deliberately modif<\/span><\/strong>y<\/span><\/strong>ing the traits of future generations <\/span><\/strong>through the maternal line. <\/span>I<\/span>n t<\/span>he U<\/span>K<\/span> eight <\/span>babies <\/span>were <\/span>born <\/span>using<\/span> MR<\/span> techniques.<\/span> Australia\u2019<\/span>s MitoHope program at Monash IVF in Melbourne is <\/span>also<\/span> preparing for <\/span>clinical <\/span>trials<\/span> of MR <\/span>under Maeve’s La<\/span>w <\/span>which<\/span> exempt<\/span>s the research<\/span> from <\/span>legal <\/span>prohibitions on <\/span>heritable human genetic m<\/span><\/strong>anipul<\/span><\/strong>ation (HHGM).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

W<\/span>e consider that Australia and the UK have <\/span>t<\/span>he first legally sanctioned form of inherited genetic alteration <\/span>to<\/span> humans <\/span>in the world. <\/span>MR<\/span> is a Trojan horse <\/span>as a<\/span>cceptance <\/span>of <\/span>HHGM <\/span>in any form <\/span>increase<\/span>s<\/span> the<\/span> rush to<\/span> technologies aimed at redesigning human inheritance. <\/span><\/p>\n

MR<\/span> can\u2019t be<\/span> viewed in isolation <\/span>as it\u2019s <\/span>part of a broad <\/span>social,<\/span> technological, and regulatory trajectory towards <\/span>the <\/span>selecti<\/span>on,<\/span> alter<\/span>ation, enhancement, and augmentation of <\/span>future <\/span>humans. <\/span>The<\/span> philosophical origins <\/span>of these trends are in<\/span> 19<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> and 20<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> century eugenics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Influential <\/span>advocates for <\/span>legalis<\/span>ed<\/span> HHGM <\/span>also a<\/span>gree<\/span> that MR <\/span>breaches current prohibitions<\/span>. They<\/span> includ<\/span>e<\/span> Canadian <\/span>bio-<\/span>entrepreneur <\/span>Cathy Tie<\/span><\/strong>, CEO <\/span>of Origin Genomics,<\/span> who <\/span>seeks<\/span> more <\/span>ambitious <\/span>uses of<\/span> reproductive biotech, and Harvard geneticist <\/span>George Church<\/span><\/strong>, <\/span>co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, who<\/span> also <\/span>support<\/span>s<\/span> some <\/span>HHGM.<\/span><\/p>\n

While <\/span>Elon Musk\u2019s company <\/span>Neuralink focuses <\/span>more <\/span>on neural <\/span>modifications than genetic <\/span>engineering, <\/span>his <\/span>transhumanist philosophy intersects with debates <\/span>a<\/span>round human enhancement, biological limits, and heritable traits. <\/span><\/p>\n

Australia <\/span>must not <\/span>proceed to clinical <\/span>MR <\/span>trials <\/span>without<\/span> comprehensive long-term safety and governance reviews and <\/span>an <\/span>open debate <\/span>on <\/span>whether society <\/span>may<\/span> legitimise <\/span>any <\/span>HHGM<\/span>. <\/span>Otherwise<\/span>, <\/span>future proposals for designer babies may be far harder to resist.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitochondrial replacement (MR aka “three-parent IVF” or mito donation) is out of the lab. Proponents say MR is a targeted way to reduce, not eliminate, the risks of mito disease…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coalition-members-contribution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coalitionstopdesignerbabies.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}