Inside STAT: Patient advocates and scientists launch push to lift ban on ‘three-parent IVF

(ODRA NOEL/WELLCOME COLLECTION)

Scientists, patient advocates, and bioethicists are convening tomorrow at Harvard Law School to discuss strategies for rolling back a U.S. prohibition on a controversial reproductive technique that combines genetic material from three people. Known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, or “three-parent IVF,” the procedure is effectively banned because of a congressional amendment that’s been renewed every year since it first passed in 2015. Advocates say it could help some women who are carriers of serious genetic diseases have healthy, biologically related children. The procedure, however, raises ethical questions and religious objections because it’s considered a form of genetic modification of eggs. STAT contributor Emily Mullin has more here.