Cytoplasmic transfer for older women

Doctors at a conference in Sydney, Australia, reported on a new and experimental technique that combines the genetic material of two women's eggs. Designed to give older women with poor quality eggs the chance to bear their own genetic children, the technique involves injecting the cytoplasm of a healthy donated egg into the egg of an older patient. The egg is then fertilised in routine in vitro fertilisation (IVF). It appears that five children have been born and a further five women are pregnant as a result of this procedure.

Some scientists are concerned that cytoplasmic transfer may cause unpredictable genetic problems in later life, while others say resulting children may suffer confused heritage because the cytoplasm contains some genetic material - albeit DNA that controls embryonic development.

The UK's regulatory body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said there were 'serious concerns' over the technique's safety and that a license to perform the procedure is unlikely to be granted in the UK.