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Peering into the genetic code of an eight-cell creature scarcely stirs excitement anymore in labs across America. But when the eight-cell creature is a human embryo — an egg and sperm united in a petri dish just 72 hours before — the sight of chromosomes lighted up in neat, color-coded pairs stirs excitement, and something deeper as well.
It stirs hope.
This is preimplantation genetic diagnosis, fertility's new frontier, where advanced genetics meets the thriving science and booming business of in vitro fertilization.
Twenty-five years after the birth of the first child conceived by human egg and sperm in a laboratory, preimplantation genetic diagnosis — or PGD — is touted as the next big thing: a technology that could eliminate inherited diseases, boost birth rates among infertile couples for whom nothing else has worked and reduce the incidence of potentially risky multiple births.
"I see this as a trend for the future, and I do see that in the future, every embryo [produced in the course of IVF cycles] will be tested," says Dr. Harvey Stern, head of the Genetics...