FDA Taking Comments on Three-Parent Embryo Research

Scientists have begun controversial research into creating embryos with three parents—two mothers and one father.

Children created by the research have three biological parents. The UK’s Embryo Authority approved three-parent in vitro fertilization earlier this year, and many are hoping the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will follow suit.

Three-parent embryo research is controversial for several reasons. Three specific reasons, however, are:

1. Some of these research methods involve the creation and destruction of other human embryos—much like human embryonic stem cell research. Human beings should not be created and killed in the name of science.
2. While the research purports to be about preventing genetic disorders from being passed from parents to children, many have pointed out the research could also be used by polygamous or polyamorous “families” to “create” children biologically-related to all the adults involved in the relationship.
3. Virtually every law, court order, school policy, and government rule or regulation related to child welfare or parental rights assumes children have two biological parents. While it’s fairly common for children to be reared by only one parent or for someone other than a biological parent to have custody of a child, it is not known what damage could be done to the rights of two-parent children if the laws change to accommodate parents of three-parent children.

The federal Food and Drug Administration is taking public comments until October 15 on clinical trials involving three-parent embryo research. Please contact the Food and Drug Administration, and ask them not to authorize this controversial research.

The person taking public comments at the Food and Drug Administration is Gail Dapolito. Gail Dapolito can be emailed at gail.dapolito@fda.hhs.gov. Please put “Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee Meeting Comment” in the email’s subject line.

For more information on this controversial research technique, see here:

• “Now is the Time to Stop Three-Parent IVF” http://www.cbc-network.org/2013/09/now-is-the-time-to-stop-three-parent-ivf/
• “Mad Scientists Gone Wild” http://www.lifenews.com/2013/09/27/mad-scientists-gone-wild-now-is-the-time-to-stop-three-parent-human-embryos/

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