20 Three-Parent Baby Mind-blowing Facts You Need to Know

Ancient Greece was really famous for its incredible technology and sophisticated science. It’s the place where Western medicine was born after all. Greece grabbed the headlines again recently for its contemporary medical advances. 

The Greek doctors shouldn’t take all the glory though. Fertility doctors from the Spainish clinic “Embryotools,” helped their colleagues in Greece to accomplish this small medical “miracle.” 

The first 3-parent baby in the world is a healthy boy. Think about it: this boy is the first human in history carrying DNA from three different people. Amazing and crazy at the same time! 

The baby boy was born weighing 6lbs (2.9kg). Both the baby and the mother are in very good health according to their doctors. 

The mother of the boy is a 32-year-old Greek woman. Her name is Matina Karavokyri. 

Mrs. Karavokyri had gone through four unsuccessful cycles of IVF ((in vitro fertilization treatment) already. The fifth was successful. We suspect that number five will be her new lucky number. 

The mother of the newborn had also undergone two operations because of endometriosis. The pain endometriosis causes to women is often described as one of the very worst pains a human can endure. 

Fear is only natural when you take a risk. However, that wasn’t the case for Mrs. Karavokyri. She didn’t feel any stress when she took this life-changing decision. She also stated in the interview that she’s now the happiest woman on earth. 

During the interview, Mrs. Karavokyri added that the baby looks exactly like his daddy. Both parents said that they feel like they received the greatest gift in life. 

The doctors of the procedure are also very happy with the outcome. They announced that they made medical history, which could help many infertile couples from around the world.

This new reproductive technology is developed to help families affected by deadly mitochondrial diseases. These diseases are passed down from the mother to her baby.

The use of triple DNA has raised ethical issues in the scientific world. Tim Child, an Oxford University professor, said in an interview, “I’m concerned that there’s no proven need for the patient to have her genetic material removed from her eggs and transferred into the eggs of a donor.” 

According to Dr. Child, the exact risks of this technology aren’t really known yet. He stated, “The risks of the technique aren’t entirely known, though may be considered acceptable if being used to treat mitochondrial disease, but not in this situation.” 

Dr. Child’s worries seem to concern the majority of American doctors as well. This probably explains why this procedure’s still banned in the US. 

The decision to proceed with the treatment has been criticized mostly by UK experts. Ironically, Britain was the first nation to legalize the experimental IVF treatment back in 2015. 

A quite similar DNA-switching technique was used in Mexico in 2016. A team of American doctors treated a woman from Jordan, in order to avoid transmission of a hereditary illness to her child. 

Greek embryologist Panagiotis Psathas, who led the team that pioneered this revolutionary operation, said that the clinical trial for the experimental IVF treatment will continue.

He won’t allow any negative criticism to discourage him and his team from making so many couples – who can’t have kids – happy. 

The scientists involved insist that the whole “three-parent baby” is more of a media stunt, than a future reality. During the IVF treatment, doctors take the nucleus of the infertile woman’s egg, which keeps the majority of her genetic material.

They transfer it then into the donor egg after they have removed its own nucleus first. There, the infertile woman’s nucleus will be encircled by healthy mitochondria.

As a result of this procedure, the baby will have the DNA of his mother and father, but also a very small number of genes from the donor.