Posted on 06/18/2006 6:30:46 PM PDT by neverdem
British fertility specialists have developed a powerful new way to test embryos for inherited diseases, offering hundreds of couples their first realistic chance of having healthy children. The procedure has been hailed as a big advance, boosting the number of diseases clinics can test for from about 200 to nearly 6,000. It will allow doctors to test for the first time a vast array of inherited diseases for which the specific genetic mutation is not known, such as Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) and some forms of cystic fibrosis. Using the technique, doctors can examine every embryo created for a couple through IVF, and determine whether each is healthy and unaffected, a carrier of the disease, or destined to develop the full-blown medical condition.
Such detailed knowledge of the genetic make-up of embryos will lead to a radical shift in the way couples at risk of passing on certain diseases are treated.
Some inherited conditions, known as x-linked diseases, are only passed on to boys, but because the mutations that cause the diseases are unknown, clinics can only screen them out by discarding every male embryo created, even if only half are affected. The new test will allow doctors to see which male embryos are free of the disease-causing mutation, so fewer embryos will be wasted. In some cases, the test will allow doctors the controversial option of asking couples to choose the sex of the embryos that are transplanted.
"This is a big, big change in what we are going to be able to do. It changes everything," said Professor Peter Braude of King's College London, who was involved in the research. Specialists at Guy's hospital in London have already used the technique to "cherry pick" healthy embryos for seven women at risk of passing on inherited diseases. Five of...
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
It's a man-made evolution.
good grief, will we abort babies now that have the dandruff gene?
Check:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f02/web1/emyers.html
and what about that "gay gene?" /sarc
Don't have such a warped view, but look at it broadly. Diagnostics is the first step. Gene identification [since they themselves do not yet know for sure in many cases] is the next. Then will come the gene therapy - how on earth could one do repairs on the problem one couldn't even pinpoint?
Any medicine that saves a person with an inherited disease or lifestyle-limiting condition who would have died - and then that person goes on to have kids - is exactly that. We have been screwing our gene pool for a long time now, building up bad traits that were "supposed" to kill people in the past.
Screening like this seems to be the only solution, short of allowing sick people to die when they don't really have to.
He would have been murdered.
As if we knew that the end result will be beings better able to survive. Screen out all known defects and we fail to screen out the unknown ones.
This is evil.
Hawking's weakness probably would have been spotted. Zap. Lincoln's, too.
what a boon that'll be to the abortion industry.
Every miracle deserves their chance to bask in the sunlight.
Is the desire to avoid the pain of having a child that may suffer from an incurable, genetically caused disability sufficient cause for an abortion?
I had a baby sister who was born with Pfeiffer's Syndrome. She passed away at 18 months. Should she have been deprived the opportunity to be loved by her family? She was cherished every moment of her life. She'd light up when she recognized me, and through all the pain her disability doubtless caused, she still smiled. She loved the sun and the wind.
Before I knew my baby sister, I would've said that the screening was okay. But after having known her for her brief span, I must dissent with any effort to turn the screening results into a reason for an abortion.
My two pence.
Absolutely, a homogenous society would be obscene.
Nobody would be obscene by mooning a high school or putting flaming bags of dog-shit on a porch and ringing the bell.
Perfection is to be desired, but never achieved....
it is the imperfection that lets us have sex with women.
The search for Nazistic perfection. Just on the unborn instead, so its more "clean and acceptable"
Disgusting.
"First of all, Beethoven. Secondly, he was not born deaf, but went deaf in adulthood, which could have been a result of trauma, disease, or congenital - the precise diagnosis is unknown. [Ditto for Goya]. Thus your using him as an example is fellatious."
Uh, I think you better look up that last word before you use it again and mark yourself as too cunning a linguist.
First of all......... relax
second........ I only said he was, not born
and thanks for caring enough to holler at me.
P.S. I admit to totally blowing the spelling, but you knew what I was ranting about and you joined me.
NEXT...........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.