The World's First Baby Born Via Three Parents Is Here!

A five-month-old boy is the first baby to be born with the DNA from three parents. This controversial case using the ‘three-parent’ technique has allowed him to avoid having a deadly genetic condition.

The technique - which was legalised in the UK last year but is still banned in the US - allows parents with rare genetic mutations to replace a mother's faulty mitochondrial DNA with another woman's during the IVF process.

This new technique was used on Jordanian parents by a US-based team in Mexico. The boy's mother carries Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder of the nervous system that's passed down through mitochondrial DNA.

However, there's still concern from many scientists that the procedure may lead to health problems for the child in the future. The child will need to be closely monitored, and the technique should be more thoroughly tested before it can deem it 'safe'.

Source: Science Alert