Mitochondrial Replacement (Public Safety)

Alex Cunningham Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

I want to tell the story of a Stockton family with a vested interest in what happens in this Chamber today.

Baby Jessica Newall was carried into my advice surgery by my constituent and her uncle, Martin Holliday. He put her pram seat on the table and we were introduced. Jessica looked like any other young baby: pretty in pink and seemingly content. If it had not been for the feeding tube disappearing into her nose, I would never have known that there was anything amiss. She brought her mum, Victoria, and her grandparents. They were there to win my support for mitochondrial replacement technique, which would help ensure that everything possible was done to minimise the possibility of a baby being born with faulty mitochondria and having to suffer as I am sure Jessica does.

I listened carefully to Jessica’s mum who very calmly and with great personal strength told me Jessica’s story. Jessica will not live much longer—perhaps only a year or two. She cannot be fed naturally and relies on a feeding tube. Her body will not develop, which means that she will not grow and her internal organs will deteriorate. She cannot communicate like other babies. Perhaps worst of all, Jessica often wakes up screaming in terror and there is nothing her parents can do but hug her and comfort her.

Victoria told me that there is no cure or treatment. She went on to tell me about what she saw as the answer for giving women like her a chance to have a baby without the substantial risk of that baby suffering from the disease. I know that we cannot make decisions on the basis of emotion, and yes, Jessica’s story is heartbreaking and charged with emotion that would affect any caring person, but it is also an accurate factual story demonstrating the devastation that mitochondrial DNA diseases can cause. That demands action from Ministers and this House of Commons.

We also need that positive action for many other reasons too. Even in less severe cases, mitochondrial disease can have an overwhelming impact on families, and the Government’s consultation recognises the

“painful, debilitating and disabling suffering, long-term ill-health and low quality of life”

that all too often result.

The north-east England Stem Cell Institute described these disorders as

“a cruel class of inherited disease, because serious, even life threatening conditions are coupled with great unpredictability about how future children will be affected.”

There is no cure, but there has been lots of research and we have seen some progress in this area. It is an inescapable fact that medical advances such as these will trigger ethical conundrums and challenge us actively to consider how we perceive the sanctity of life. I agree that there are safety issues. This is not without risk, but if we are to avoid this horrific suffering in the future, we need the regulations now to make the necessary progress and help ensure that we do not have more babies like Jessica.