Three-Parent Babies Are OK, Experts Say

The National Academy of Medicine has deemed using sperm and egg cells from three different people as a viable option for would-be parents with a high risk of rare, devastating genetic diseases and want their offspring to avoid developing these problems. 

The Food and Drug Administration should carefully regulate such experiments, the panel said in a report. Along with other suggestions, they recommend that at first only male embryos be made until it's clear that dangerous mutations won't be passed on to future generations. 

"This will be an amazing breakthrough, benefiting patients who otherwise could not have healthy, genetically related children," said Dr. Owen Davis, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

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