European Moves Towards Embryo Screening Welcomed By International Fertility Experts

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 04 May 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) welcomes the moves by European authorities towards the acceptance of embryo selection to reduce the burden of disease in later life. In two landmark pieces of legislation within the last two weeks, European politicians moved towards the use of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to help eliminate rare diseases and hereditary cancers.

On 24th April, the European Parliament adopted an amendment* which recommends ".. that Member States encourage efforts to avoid rare diseases which are hereditary, through genetic counselling of carrier parents and, where appropriate and not contrary to existing national laws and always on a voluntary basis, through pre-implantation selection of healthy embryos". This amendment is aimed at reducing the burden of rare diseases in Europe, which can affect up to 36 milion European citizens. Two days previously, the Spanish authorities authorised the genetic screening of pre-implantation embryos to ensure they do not carry genes that might cause cancer. In January this year, a woman in the UK became the first person to give birth to a child who had been selected to be free of the BRCA-1 gene, which carries a high risk of developing breast cancer. About 5% breast cancer cases are estimated to be caused by the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes, both of which can be detected in embryos.

Commenting on behalf or the International Federation of Fertility Societies, Dr Richard Kennedy (Secretary General) said:

The International Federation of Fertility Societies welcomes these positive moves by parliaments in Europe towards the acceptance of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) as a way of reducing the burden of disease. PGD offers a very real way of giving parents the opportunity to remove the risks of serious diseases. These children will be able to grow into healthy adults without the fear that what is written in their genes might condemn them to a serious illness in later life.

The moves by European and Spanish authorities show a mature attitude to ensuring that these children live a life as free from illness as possible. We hope that other national and international authorities move towards similar positions.

Source
The International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS)
http://www.iffs-reproduction.org/index.html

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