Posted on 04/25/2009 10:55:10 AM PDT by wagglebee
Children are being born with severe genetic abnormalities because their parents are being refused funding to screen their embryos, those working in the field have claimed.
Fairer provision of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - in which embryos can be screened for a particular abnormality - could also mean fewer abortions when problems are picked up further down the line, experts from the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's Hospital say.
The new, fully integrated IVF and PGD centre in London opens on Thursday and will serve couples from across the UK who want to ensure their baby does not carry a potentially life-threatening inherited condition - from cystic fibrosis to some forms of early onset cancer.
But a "postcode lottery" means many parents who would like to use the service cannot necessarily get their local primary care trust to put up the £7,000 needed for the treatment, according to Alison Lashwood, a consultant nurse in genetics and PGD at Guy's.
Funding decisions can take up to a year to be reached, she added.
"There is no doubt that there are couples who go ahead [and conceive naturally] and go on to have further affected children," she said.
In one case known to the centre, a couple who were refused funding despite having lost one child at birth to a severe chromosomal abnormality went on to have two other babies with exactly the same condition.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
"We're not doing this on demand, we're doing it solely for serious genetic abnormalities," he said.
And soon these "serious genetic abnormalities" will include things like gender, eye color, hair color and intelligence.
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This brief excerpt omits the fact that most of these severe chromosomal abnormalities are occurring among England’s huge Muslim population, among whom cousin-marriage is very common. Alas, fashion and political correctness have made frank discussion of the phenomenon taboo.
With this sort of testing I’d probably never would’ve been allowed to be born since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 9 yo. I am now 48 and still in good health but I guess my life would be somehow not good enough to be allowed to be born?
Huge? 3% max?
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