UK Moves Towards Making Babies from DNA of Three People
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Siri Stafford/Photodisc/Thinkstock(LONDON) — British politicians voted by a big margin in favor of letting scientists create babies from the DNA of three people.
The House of Commons voted in favor of the measure on Tuesday in a final tally of 382 to 128.
The move by lawmakers would help to prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
“The families that carry that very, very high risk of such diseases have the right to have the world of science come to their aid,” said Labor lawmaker Andrew Miller, who chairs the Science and Technology Parliamentary Committee.
It’s thought the intervention could be useful in breaking the inheritance of certain diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
The bill still needs approval by the House of Lords and a further Commons vote on any amendments before becoming law.
If the bill is approved, it would make Britain the first nation to allow embryos to be genetically modified.
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