title: Mitochondrial Modification Techniques and Ethical Issues.
abstract: Current strategies for preventing the transmission of mitochondrial disease to offspring include techniques known as mitochondrial replacement and mitochondrial gene editing. This technology has already been applied in humans on several occasions, and the first baby with donor mitochondria has already been born. However, these techniques raise several ethical concerns, among which is the fact that they entail genetic modification of the germline, as well as presenting safety problems in relation to a possible mismatch between the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, maternal mitochondrial DNA carryover, and the "reversion" phenomenon. In this essay, we discuss these questions, highlighting the advantages of some techniques over others from an ethical point of view, and we conclude that none of these are ready to be safely applied in humans.
authors.affiliation: Escuela de Doctorado Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia 46001, Spain. lucia.gomez@ucv.es.|Facultad de Medicina y Odontología, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Grupo de Medicina Molecular y Mitocondrial, Valencia 46001, Spain. lucia.gomez@ucv.es.|Institute of Life Sciences, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia 46001, Spain. lucia.gomez@ucv.es.
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gómez-Tatay
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina y Odontología, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Grupo de Medicina Molecular y Mitocondrial, Valencia 46001, Spain. jmiguel.hernandez@ucv.es.|Institute of Life Sciences, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia 46001, Spain. jmiguel.hernandez@ucv.es.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hernández-Andreu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Life Sciences, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Valencia 46001, Spain. justo.aznar@ucv.com.
authors.forename: Justo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aznar
keywords: CRISPR; TALENs; ethics; gene editing; maternal spindle transfer; mitochondrial disease; mitochondrial replacement; polar body transfer; pronuclear transfer