Sarah Norcross, Director of the Progress Educational Trust (PET), said:
We could not be more delighted by the news that eight babies with donated mitochondria have been born in the UK, and that all of these children have made normal developmental progress.
Our charity spent many years campaigning for UK law to be changed, to permit the use of mitochondrial donation in treatment. We salute the patients who had the courage to attempt these novel treatments, and we thank the team at Newcastle for justifying patients' confidence in them.
Mitochondrial donation will not necessarily be appropriate for every patient who carries disease-causing mitochondrial DNA mutations – rather, its appropriateness depends on various factors that are explored in detail in the new studies. Importantly, the studies place mitochondrial donation within the context of a broader NHS care pathway, that offers a variety of options for people carrying mitochondrial DNA mutations who wish to have children.
Nonetheless, the studies demonstrate that mitochondrial donation is a feasible option – indeed, a positive reproductive choice – for some patients. An important consideration is that women considering mitochondrial donation are advised to start their fact-finding early, because of the decline of egg quality with maternal age.
The medical and scientific work at Newcastle, and the policy and legal work that preceded it, have set a high standard for introducing new reproductive technology in a careful and scrupulously regulated way. We are pleased to see that Australia is following a similarly responsible path, having recently introduced its own law that permits the use of mitochondrial donation for the purpose of avoiding mitochondrial disease.
The work at Newcastle will no doubt inform – and in future, will perhaps also be informed by – by the mitoHOPE pilot programme for mitochondrial donation in Australia.
PET is a charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions, and that campaigned for the introduction of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 into UK law.