Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Written Statement WS132 of 17 December 2014 on mitochondrial donation, for what reasons serial nuclear transfer is precluded by the proposed regulations 3(c) and 6(c) which prevent any further alterations in the nuclear or mitochondrial DNA.
Regulations 3 and 6 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 enable eggs and embryos created following the Maternal Spindle Transfer and the Pro-Nuclear Transfer techniques to be “permitted” for used in treatment subject to certain conditions (set out in regulations 4 and 7). Specifically, regulations 3 ( c ) and 6 ( c ) provide that no further alteration can be made to the egg or embryo that is created following mitochondrial donation. The intention is to ensure that mitochondrial donation, as allowed in the regulations, is a specifically defined process by which unhealthy mitochondria is replaced by healthy mitochondria.