The United Kingdom is set to become the first country in the world to allow the creation of babies with DNA from two women and one man, the BBC reported.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday sanctioned a technique that stops genetic diseases being passed from mother to child. The method, developed in Britain, would help women who might otherwise lose their children to mitochondrial disease.

The House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain's Parliament, must still approve the bill before it can become law. Up to 150 three-person babies could be born each year in the country, according to estimates.

The controversial technique involves changing the genetic material passed down through generations, Sky News explained. It allows women to have children without passing on serious and incurable diseases found in their own mitochondria, the tiny power generators present in almost every cell of the human body. Instead, a donor woman's mitochondria are used to replace the faulty ones.

"The 37 genes in the mitochondria are for energy making," said Sally Davies, England's Chief Medical Officer, who supports the measure. "They do not make us who we are or what we are. Yet children born with defective ones often don't live a year or two. Others get gradual deterioration of muscles, heart, kidneys, vision and brain and die in their late teens and early 20s."

Other proponents, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, insist that lawmakers' approval was "good news for progressive medicine."

"We're not playing God here," Cameron said. "We're just making sure that two parents who want a healthy baby can have one."

But the Church of England, as well as the Catholic Church in England and Wales, opposed the move, the BBC said. The denominations argued that it had not yet been shown that the technique was safe or ethical.

The Rev. Brendan McCarthy, who advises the Church of England on medical ethics, said that more time was needed to study the issue.

"We need to be absolutely clear that the techniques that will be used will be safe, and we need to be absolutely sure that they will work," McCarthy insisted. "What's the rush?"