Aggregated News
A momentous decision that could lead in time to wholesale screening of embryos for diseases they may develop as adults was made in an undemocratic manner by an unelected authority behind closed doors, it was alleged yesterday.
Not only the pressure group GeneWatch UK but even some fertility doctors had doubts about the way the decision was made to allow couples to have their embryos screened for a rare genetic mutation linked to bowel cancer.
The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, set up by parliament to oversee fertility treatment, yesterday confirmed it had granted a licence to a London clinic to test embryos for the inherited condition. It is the first time the HFEA has given the go-ahead for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for a disease which will not affect the child for some years.
Doctors said yesterday that the decision is a landmark. It opens the way for fertility clinics to apply to screen embryos for other genes that are linked to cancers, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes for breast cancer, which can raise a woman's risk...
Not only the pressure group GeneWatch UK but even some fertility doctors had doubts about the way the decision was made to allow couples to have their embryos screened for a rare genetic mutation linked to bowel cancer.
The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, set up by parliament to oversee fertility treatment, yesterday confirmed it had granted a licence to a London clinic to test embryos for the inherited condition. It is the first time the HFEA has given the go-ahead for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for a disease which will not affect the child for some years.
Doctors said yesterday that the decision is a landmark. It opens the way for fertility clinics to apply to screen embryos for other genes that are linked to cancers, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes for breast cancer, which can raise a woman's risk...