Advances in genetics have allowed parents in Britain using IVF to choose to “leave out” the gene that promotes breast cancer.
The breast cancer gene is believed to raise the risk of developing the life threatening disease by 40-85%. The father’s family had a history of the disease making him wary of the heightened possibility of the development of breast cancer due to genetics. The doctors scanned 11 of the couples fertilized embryo’s and found only two did not have this gene, resulting in the parents choice to go ahead with the gestation of those two embryo’s and disregard the rest.
The same scenario has been in practise for some years relating to Autism, with couples already having autistic children requesting sex selection to select only females as the disease is predominant in males.
Although decreasing an IVF baby’s risk of disease or abnormalities is viewed as a positive advance in medical science, it leaves many wondering how long it will be before “designer” babies will be available. Altering a child’s IQ to be above 90 has already been in debate, as well as other more controversial traits such has hair/eye colour, height etc, though no cases for the latter have yet been reported.
PRIMARY REFERENCE:
JOSEPH BROWNSTEIN
ABC News Medical Unit
July 1, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCallPlusBreastCancerNews/story?id=5278365
Ashleigh Smith 41806728
