Genetics and the use of genetics

SCIENCE continually accrues greater genetic knowledge. Geneticists claim to have found the gene for good
parenting, genes for obesity, Alzheimers disease, hair colour and happiness. Amazing advances in
reproductive technologies increase the potential to choose the traits or characteristics of children.
Techniques such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) can already be used to screen embryos for
genetic diseases. Similarly, embryos created outside the body using invitro fertilisation are tested for genetic
disorders before being transferred to the uterus.
Advances in genetic technology have brought many benefits but also raise some serious concerns.
Advocates highlight the potential benefits, such as the possible elimination of debilitating diseases such as
Alzheimers or Parkinsons.
Some, however, fear that it will encourage attempts to create perfect, high achieving children. Will
parents of the future be able to select their desired genes to create the embryo of choice - their own designer
baby? What ethical issues will this raise?
Few, however, anticipated the case of prospective parents deliberately engineering genetic defects into
their children. A US couple has sparked a controversial debate by deliberately choosing a deaf sperm donor
in order to maximise their chance of having a deaf baby. Candy McCullough and Sharon Duchesneau
selected a deaf man as a sperm donor after being told by a sperm bank that donors with disabilities were
screened out. The couple see deafness as a cultural identity and not a disability, and their decision has been
condemned by many.
Increasingly parents are engaging in selection. Most commonly this involves prenatal screening against
disability or disease. In Australia, women routinely use ultrasound and amniocentesis to test for congenital
abnormalities. Some argue that this is quite different from accepting and choosing a disability such as
deafness. There have been several reported cases of deaf children deliberately conceived through embryo
selection overseas, and the chairman of Melbourne IVF, John McBain, says a deaf couple approached his
service three years ago wanting to maximise their chance of having a deaf baby.
A Victorian couple have recently been given permission to create a designer baby to help save the life
of their terminally ill sibling.
Victoria s Infertility Treatment Authority has approved an interim policy permitting the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) embryo selection, which will allow cells from the designer babys
umbilical cord to be used for a transplant to help save Christina. Up until now the use of such tissue typing
has been illegal in Australia. Individual cases must be approved by an ethics committee and can be made
only for a sibling.
With such a range of questions being raised, the issue of the application of genetic research is sure to
stay in the news.
The Age

Visions of the Future: print media text