Guardian: Birth of first British baby screened to be free of cancer gene

[BurtWorm]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jan/09/breast-cancer-gene-baby


The first British baby genetically screened before conception to be free of a breast cancer gene has been born, doctors said today.

The baby girl grew from an embryo screened to ensure it did not contain the faulty BRCA1 gene, which would have meant she had a 50-85% of developing breast cancer.

A spokeswoman for University College London hospital said the mother and daughter were doing "very well", adding that the family did not wish to reveal when the little girl was born.

...

In June the mother, then 27, told how she decided to undergo the screening process after seeing all her husband's female relatives suffer the disease.

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said at the time: "We felt that if there was a possibility of eliminating this for our children, then that was a route we had to go down."

The technique, known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), has already been used in the UK to rule out inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease....

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. O Brave new world, That has such people in't!

Conquering cancer: Very cool
Potential to play God in the elitist, bad way: Unnerving.

I really don't know what to think.

[BurtWorm]

2. It's difficult to see the downside of eliminating a potentially fatal flaw in a child's code.

Especially in an age when children like this girl can be given a death sentence just by having that flaw readable in her code from birth.

I do understand the queasiness you feel about "programming" a child's DNA before birth, though. I've seen Gattacca.

[Barack_America]

4. But it's only a 50-80% chance of getting a disease...

That has been one of the most highly researched and treated diseases in history. A disease that we can also screen for.

That's what puts this on ethical shady ground, IMO. PGD has been used for years, but usually for detecting diseases that the individual is sure to get and that there is no effective treatment for.

[Postman]

3. This is a wonderful thing.

Eliminating the potential for disease.....

Now if only they can eliminate Bush gene, now that would be a breakthrough...

[Barack_America]

5. Is it? As many as 50% of discarded embryos with the disease gene would never get the disease.

And of the 50% that would have gotten it, only a small percentage would have died due to the screening and treatments available for breast cancer.

I'm not saying that I disagree with this, just presenting the potential ethical issues here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It depends on your views of 3 day old embryos

which, typical pages on the 'net say, consists of about 8 cells. The ethical considerations seem to be about the same as for IVF in general.

[Barack_America]

7. Yes, for the individual embryo...

But repeated instances of this also affect the genetic make-up of the population as a whole and could be considered to be eugenics.

And some diseases, such as sickle-cell and Tay Sachs confer genetic advantages to heterozygous carriers of the disease gene. Is it wise to start culling out those disease genes?

Like I said, I'm not arguing for or against this, I just have an interest in bioethics.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. They did have to get permission for this

Permission to carry out PGD for breast cancer had to be obtained from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority by the London clinic that performed the procedure.

The body, which licenses IVF clinics and embryo research, approved the procedure after holding public consultation.

Affecting the genetic make-up in this fashion is a Good Thing, I'd say. With consultation on the instances it is allowed to be used, the specific circumstances of sickle-cell etc. can be taken into account.