Designer Babies
From News & Views, 4-06-06
Telegraph. March 26, 2006--Britain's first IVF "designer baby" clinic is
to charge about £6,000 for a made-to-order infant. The £5
million centre will bring pioneering embryo screening techniques for the
creation of "saviour siblings" to Britain. In addition, it will offer
testing for up to 100 inherited gene disorders such as muscular
dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. Embryos found to be carrying rogue genes
will be discarded and only "healthy" embryos implanted into their
mothers. The centre is to be opened by the private Care at the Park IVF
Clinic in Nottingham within three months. But campaigners said it
represents a further step by the IVF industry on the slippery slope
towards eug! enics and parents being able to choose characteristics for
their children such as blue eyes or blond hair. A spokesman for Care at
the Park said: "We are linking up with the latest technology and can
screen for almost any genetic disorder linked to a specific gene
mutation."
Embryos will be examined under a microscope and a single cell removed
for genetic testing. Experts say this does not harm the embryo.
Additional screening can find an immune system match for existing
children. Couples seeking to create "saviour siblings" for sick children
who need a transplant of blood cells to overcome rare genetic forms of
anaemia will be able to have all their treatment in Britain. The
country's first "designer baby", Jamie Whitaker, was born in 2003 to
save the life of his sick brother, Charlie, after his parents travelled
to America for IVF treatment and embryo screening. Because Jamie's
immune system cells were a good match for Charlie's, his umbilical cord
blood was used to cure his six-year-old brother's life-threatening
Diamond Blackfan Anaemia (DBA).
A leading fertility specialist, Dr Simon Fishel, of Care at the Park,
said he believed that the National Health Service should be prepared to
fund "designer baby" treatments, which will now become widely available
thanks to the new centre. A single cycle could cost about £6,000,
compared with about £3,000 for standard IVF without embryo
screening. Dr Fishel said: "There needs to be a debate on this because
the lifetime cost of caring for a child born with disorders such as DBA
can be as much as £1 million."
Linda W. Flower, MD: "Designer babies" have been a
subject of quiet debate for several years now, ever since the creation
of the U.S. "savior sibling" for the treatment of Fanconi's Anemia in
2003. (Fanconi's anemia is an inherited disease that primarily affects
the bone marrow, resulting in decreased production of all types of blood
cells, susceptibility to infection and several physical anomalies.)*
There are several problems with the methods called "preimplantation
genetic diagnosis or PGD" used to "treat" genetic disorders in this
manner. First, the individuals (embryos) who have a genetic disorder
detected by PGD or embryonic cellular extraction are not treated, they
are discarded or sent on to be experimented upon. Second, no one really
knows for sure what the long-term effects of reducing the number of
cells in an embryo are. Third, as Dr. Fischel infers, this will only be
available to couples who are financially well off, unless the state
decid! es to finance these procedures in the name of "fiscal
responsibility" in order to save money over time. This could ultimately
lead to forcing couples to have genetic testing in the name of fiscal
responsibility. If they refuse, will they then be fined or denied state
aid for handicapped children?
This is a steep slippery slope toward population eugenics. If anyone
recommended we do this to any other animal, they would be called to task
by every environmental group in the world. Even more compelling is that
moving beyond disease prevention to genetic enhancement is a short hop.
We are already successful in treating several genetic diseases in
affected individuals without destroying them. This is the ethical way to
treat genetic diseases, lest we return to pre-Nuremberg eugenics.
*Houston Chronicle 1/21/03
Beezy Marsh. "'Designer baby' clinic to charge £6,000 per
child." Telegraph. March 26, 2006.