The world’s first baby has been born using a new ‘three person’ fertility method, the New Scientist has revealed.
The five-month-old boy has the DNA from both his mum and dad as well as a third bit of genetic code from an outside donor.
In the breakthrough method, U.S. doctors broke conventional techniques in order to ensure the baby would be free from a genetic condition passed on from his Jordanian mother.
They repaired the mitochondria - a tiny part of a cell that converts food into energy - in the mother’s egg, and then fertilised it with the father’s sperm in a laboratory.
0.1% of the baby’s DNA comes from the donor, with the rest coming from his parents.
The team carried out the controversial process in Mexico, where there are no laws prohibiting its use.
Specialists have said that the move ‘heralds a new era in medicine’ and could help to prevent genetic disorders being passed down to new lives in the future.
But they have also warned that the practice, known as ‘mitochondrial donation’, needs to be subject to rigorous checks.
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