By Andrew Hiller

WASHINGTON (VR) – It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: blending the genes from three adults to form a baby. But the feasibility and ethics of this medical breakthrough is being debated this week at the Food and Drug Administration. Proponents say it could close the door on some hereditary diseases that science has no answer to, but opponents say there are a myriad of concerns that need to be addressed, among them creating a designer baby and the lack of information on the health of a potential child and its offspring.

Here to delve into the possibility of a ménage-et-test-tube is Dr. Debra Mathews, assistant director of Science Programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore, Maryland.

“One of the reasons it is controversial, is that you would be modifying the genetics of future generations who do not have the ability to make a decision about it,” Dr. Mathews said.

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