The embryos each contained genetic material from one man and two women.

Readers may wonder if this type of research would be lawful in Australia. The short answer is probably yes, provided the researcher obtains a licence from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Licensing Committee and the embryo is not implanted in a woman. The Licensing Committee has granted licences to use abnormally fertilised embryos (like those in the Newcastle study) in research and this type of research would probably be granted a licence.

In Australia, it is an offence punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment to intentionally create or develop a human embryo that contains genetic material provided by more than two people outside the body of a woman (Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction Act 2002, s 13). However, that section applies only if the embryo is created ‘by a process of the fertilisation of a human egg by a human sperm’ (s 13(a)).  If the embryo is created by another process, then it can be done lawfully under licence (s 23(a) of that Act; Research involving Human Embryos Act 2002, s 20).

In the Newcastle University study, the research embryo that contained the DNA from three people (the couple and a donor) was not formed by fertilising a human egg with human sperm. It was formed by removing healthy DNA from a fertilised egg formed from the couple’s gametes (sperm and egg), and placing that DNA in a fertilised egg from a donor with healthy mitochondria, after removing the nucleus from that egg.

This technique may one day join other IVF procedures to help couples have healthy babies. As with each new step, critics will argue that we should not interfere with nature; that we do not know the potential consequences of this type of intervention; and that couples should not seek ‘designer babies’ but accept and love the children they are given.

However, parents naturally want to give their children the best life they can and new technology sometimes involves risks. Consider the birth of the first IVF baby – a leap into the unknown. Now, there have been thousands of children born from IVF throughout the world and we all know people who have IVF children.

The Newcastle University research provides hope for a new treatment for mitochondrial disease but before then, we will need far more research to test its efficacy and safety. Also, the Australian legislation will need to be amended to allow the procedure to be used in treatment as well as research. These issues should be taken into account in the review of the Australian legislation later this year.

Professor Loane Skene is a Professor of Law at the Melbourne Law School and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.  She is a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee, one of the principal Committees of the National Health and Medical Society.