In Vitro Fertilisation
overemphasised. Women who conceive through an
egg donor of the same race have about 99.9 percent
of their genome in common with the newborn, he
explained, while those conceiving with their own eggs
will reach about 99.95 percent of relatedness.
“Are we going to do an experiment for less than 0.1
percent of genome?” he wondered.
Added to this, egg donation allows prospective
mothers to create a crucial bond with their babies
during pregnancy, one that may also influence
the newborn’s genetic make-up. “There’s a
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major connection between mothers and babies
born through egg donation because the uterine
environment has a massive effect on the baby’s gene
expression, a process essential to human variation,”
said Dr Keefe.
Though she agrees that the process of pregnancy
may influence gene expression in newborns, Dr Falk
stresses this is a complicated area on which there’s
not a lot of evidence.
Despite all these safety concerns, however, the
handful of babies born through nuclear genome
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