YP Comment: Baby licence granted in the UK

News that doctors in the North East have been given the first UK licence to create babies from three genetic parents, has been hailed as a “momentous day” for patients by the team at the Newcastle Fertility Centre.

The advanced form of IVF will be used to prevent children dying from inherited conditions, and the hope is it will overcome mitochondrial diseases which leave people with insufficient energy to keep their heart beating and end the misery endured by families that have lost multiple children to the disease.

It is a landmark victory for those who have campaigned for the technique to be introduced in this country and comes just two months after a baby was born to a previously infertile couple in Ukraine using a new type of “three-person IVF”.