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question text |
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, Jane Ellison, on 17 December 2014 (HC
Deb, col. 96WS), what concerns were raised by the expert panel convened by the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regarding the possibility of carryover
of a small percentage of abnormal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the affected oocyte
or zygote as a result of close associations between mtDNA and the karyoplast; what
additional consideration the HFEA’s expert panel gave to replicative advantage of
some mtDNA variants skewing the proportions in subsequent development as a result
of a mitochondrial bottleneck; whether they can therefore guarantee that no females
born following spindle-chromosomal complex transfer or pronuclear transfer would ever
transmit the disease to subsequent generations; if not, whether serial nuclear transfer
would minimise this risk; and why serial nuclear transfer is precluded by Regulations
3(c) and 6(c) of the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation)
Regulations 2015, which prevent any further "alterations in the nuclear or mitochondrial
DNA".
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