Three-Parent Babies and Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques. An Institutional View of Moral Parenthood

Abstract

In this paper, I address the philosophical consistency of the term “three-parent babies,” which is often used to describe children born through mitochondrial replacement therapy. I will argue that two primary arguments, based respectively on identity and causality, fail to exclude egg donors as candidates as moral parents due to their essential contribution to the child's existence (moral parenthood encompasses a set of rights and responsibilities that are not directly regulated by a legal system). Finally, I shall show how the potential extension of parental status to donors is conceivable, relying on the concept of “investment” in the procreative dynamic, and a conventional and institutional conception of parenthood.