On May 15, 2015, Marie T. Hilliard, NCBC Director of Bioethics and Public Policy and registered nurse, shared her clinical and bioethical expertise in providing public testimony to the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Hilliard explained how detrimental the current research is to women, the unborn, and society. Though the purpose of the research, purportedly, is to prevent mitochondrial disease, in reality it is focused on a eugenics that destroys less than perfect human life.

Dr. Hilliard states in no uncertain terms:

This research is a far cry from therapeutic studies to modify in a healthy manner nuclear DNA. Animal studies are advancing in this area, so that one day treatment can occur without destroying or altering a human. Here is where our society's efforts should be concentrated, not on this research whose benefits remain unknown, whose impact on women and even the surviving embryos is blatantly negative, and whose impact on generations to come is uncharted.

Please be sure to read the full testimony and keep abreast of the many initiatives the NCBC has undertaken in public policy and advocacy.

• Read the full copy of the NCBC testimony, titled “Novel Techniques for Prevention of Maternal Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA Diseases.” 

• Learn more about our current work in public policy here.