Horror at 'Three Parent Foetus' Gene Disorders

Amelia Hill in New York
Sunday May 20, 2001
The Observer

The American doctor who trumpeted a fertility technique using three genetic
parents failed to disclose that along with 15 healthy babies it produced
two foetuses with a rare genetic disorder. Experts are horrified because
the fault can be passed to future generations.

Dr Jacques Cohen denounced as 'hysterical' growing criticism of his claims
that the research posed no risks. Cohen, who worked in Britain for three
years in the 1980s at one of the country's first IVF clinics, said: 'Many
of the techniques I carry out in America are illegal in Britain but that
does not mean they are immoral.'

Researchers at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St
Barnabus in New Jersey boasted of their success in an article in last
month's issue of the respected British journal, Human Reproduction. The
journal has since instituted tighter pre-publication procedures.

Twenty-seven infertile couples who could not conceive through IVF took part
in the programme in which an infertile woman's egg is mixed with her
husband's sperm and parts of a younger woman's egg. In 30 attempts, 15
babies were born. Their maternal genes came from their true mothers and all
appeared completely healthy.

'These statistics stand alone as justification for the work we are doing,'
Cohen maintained at the time. In their article the researchers concluded
there was 'no reason' to believe the technique was harmful to foetuses or
babies.

But what Cohen's team failed to reveal was that although 15 babies were
born, 17 foetuses were created. The first unborn foetus was aborted and the
second miscarried after both developed a genetic anomaly called Turner's
Syndrome, a rare chromosomal disorder in which an entire chromosome is
missing.