Aggregated News
Couples might soon use the technologies sold by personal-genomics companies to choose the genetic make-up of their children.
Last week, at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco, California, researchers cautioned that they do not yet advocate this use of genetic tests. But as the technology advances, consumer demand is likely to overwhelm societal ethical qualms. "If people think they can make their babies healthier at year one, year two, or in utero, they will do it," says Jacques Cohen, research director at Reprogenetics, a genetic-testing company in West Orange, New Jersey.
Fertility doctors already use genetic analyses to check cells from embryos for specific large genetic abnormalities, such as the loss or gain of entire chromosomes. These analyses help parents choose which embryos to transfer into a woman's uterus during in vitro fertilization procedures. But now scientists have begun more detailed genetic analyses that rely on microarrays to survey an embryo's genome. Some of the microarrays contain thousands of tiny genetic markers called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that are used to reconstruct the...
Last week, at a meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco, California, researchers cautioned that they do not yet advocate this use of genetic tests. But as the technology advances, consumer demand is likely to overwhelm societal ethical qualms. "If people think they can make their babies healthier at year one, year two, or in utero, they will do it," says Jacques Cohen, research director at Reprogenetics, a genetic-testing company in West Orange, New Jersey.
Fertility doctors already use genetic analyses to check cells from embryos for specific large genetic abnormalities, such as the loss or gain of entire chromosomes. These analyses help parents choose which embryos to transfer into a woman's uterus during in vitro fertilization procedures. But now scientists have begun more detailed genetic analyses that rely on microarrays to survey an embryo's genome. Some of the microarrays contain thousands of tiny genetic markers called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that are used to reconstruct the...