The College Perspective by Lindsey

Recently, a healthy baby was born to parents at a Mexican clinic after what is known as a mitochondrial transfer. In layman’s terms, this is called a three parent baby. This procedure is controversial in many parts of the world and is banned in the United States because it takes genetic material from a donor as well as the couple who are trying to conceive. Through this process, doctors hope to avoid flaws in either parent’s mitochondria that can cause serious illnesses in their offspring.

The couple in question had given birth to two other children who died at very young ages because of Leigh’s disease, where the child eventually stops moving and breathing. No other attempts at mitochondrial transfer have been successful, which makes this a huge milestone in medical history, though many doctors are angry this procedure has taken so long to accomplish as the research was done over twenty years ago. However, many medical professionals are still hoping that this will make the procedure more accessible in the countries who have banned or been divided on the procedure in the past.

I believe this story is very newsworthy, especially for people who have been struggling with infertility or want to have a healthy baby but have been cautious because of the chances of their baby being born with a serious illness. As the article said, this is groundbreaking work for the medical world and can open up a whole new world of possibilities. I believe the audience is mainly people who are looking to conceive, but the general public or those interested in medicine are also targeted because of the rarity of the story.

The lead is effective because it brings interest to a procedure regular people outside of medicine may never have heard of before and lays out most of the facts in those first two sentences. The story is definitely written from the perspective of a person who thinks the procedure should be accepted, as there are little to no opposing opinions about the birth of this baby through mitochondrial transfer. What could be added are some quotes from the other point of view and some of the paragraphs could be switched around for better flow, because they switch from science to the couple and then back to science which can make the story seem choppy at points. All in all, it’s a well thought out article, but could possibly use more quotes and ideas from the opposing side to bring in more interest.

The link to the original story can be found here.