MEDICAL REVOLUTION: The world’s first three-parent baby has been born to Muslim parents

The world’s first three-parent baby has been born. Popular science magazine, New Scientists revealed the birth of a baby boy Ibrahim, now five months old, using DNA from three parents.

Please don't get them wrong. They just used part of the DNA of an unknown female donor because there was a fatal disease in a specific part of mother's DNA which has caused death of their two children in the past.

The baby called Ibrahim, whose mother and father are Jordanian, was born in Mexico.

His mother carries genes for Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder that affects the developing nervous system, and caused the deaths of their first two children.

This technique replace defective mitochondrial DNA and prevented the Leigh syndrome being passed to ibrahim through Shaban.

Her son was conceived from an egg containing nuclear DNA from his parents, and mitochondrial DNA from a "second" mother - an unknown female donor.

The technique was altered slightly because as Muslims the parents were against the destruction of embryos.

The method has not been approved in the US, so Dr Zhang went to Mexico instead, where he said “there are no rules”. Defending his decision, he said: “To save lives is the ethical thing to do”.

Media Bites Editorial - Tazeen Hasan

Published on September 28, 2016