Building healthy families

Abstract

When in vitro fertilization (IVF) was first used 25 years ago to ‘conceive’ a healthy baby girl, it was met with huge opposition over the ethical and moral implications of this ‘unnatural’ technology. Since then, IVF has produced an estimated one million babies and the vehement opposition has died down as more babies are born. Now, the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to screen embryos against inherited diseases has again rallied opponents and moved IVF back into the crosshairs of critics. In particular, the case of Adam Nash grabbed headlines in the USA; Adam was ‘created’ from an embryo that had been screened using PGD and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue typing. As a result, he is not only free from the Fanconi anaemia that afflicts his sister Molly but is also a perfect genetic match for her. After Adam's birth, stem cells taken from the umbilical cord were used to treat Molly's disease. More recently, after a prolonged legal battle with UK authorities, the Hashmi family finally received permission in April this year to use PGD and tissue typing to select an embryo in the hope of having a healthy baby to treat their son Zain, who suffers from β‐thalassaemia. These and other cases have received significant publicity and have prompted heated debates over the ethics of using PGD to select for specific traits. > For couples haunted by a family history of genetic disease, there are few reproductive choices For couples haunted by a family history of genetic disease, there are few reproductive choices. Aside from adopting a child or using IVF with donated eggs or sperm, they can either take the risk of conceiving a child with the disease, or not have children at all. PGD has changed this, and it is now possible to have a …