Scientists are working on a technology that would eliminate genetic disease in newborns by combining the DNA of three people instead of two in a single embryo.

However, the announcement of the study raised the alarm that the scientists would open the door for people to create “designer babies” with special features such as eye color, hair color or skin.

Food and Drug Administration officials are meeting over the next two days with the scientists in the project to see if they will allow testing on humans.  The process is currently only approved to be used on monkeys.

“Once you make this change, if a female arises from the process and goes on to have children, that change is passed on, so it’s forever,” Phil Yeske, chief science officer of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, told Bloomberg. “That’s uncharted territory; we just don’t know what it means. Permanent change of the human germline has never been done before, and we don’t know what will happen in future generations.”

Four monkeys have been created using the process and have been healthy through their first three years.