Fertility clinic’s world-first in halting genetic disease

A Cork fertility clinic has claimed a world-first in achieving a pregnancy where use of a ground-breaking technique ensured a couple, at risk of passing on a severe genetic disease to their unborn child, did not do so.

The baby, due next month, will be born unaffected by mucolipidosis — a rare inherited metabolic disorder where growth usually stops before a child reaches the age of two. Most people born with mucolipidosis do not survive past early childhood.

The couple already have two children, one of whom is healthy and one severely affected by the disorder.