New Uses For PGD Increasingly Raising Ethical Questions, Opinion Piece Says
Main Category: Women's Health / GynecologyAlso Included In: Fertility; Genetics
Article Date: 20 Sep 2006 - 18:00 PDT
'New Uses For PGD Increasingly Raising Ethical Questions, Opinion Piece Says'
| Patient / Public: | ![]() |
|
| Healthcare Prof: | ![]() |
4.57 (7 votes) |
The expanding use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which historically has been used to test embryos for fatal childhood diseases, is an increasingly "slippery slope" because it is being used to screen for "milder disease, the absence of useful tissue or just the wrong sex," William Saletan, science and technology reporter for Slate online magazine, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. According to Saletan, PGD increasingly is being used to predict "[p]robability and life expectancy" of a child and to screen for "less serious diseases," such as arthritis. He notes that according to a new survey of U.S. fertility clinics scheduled for release this week by the Genetics and Public Policy Center, 28% of clinics offering PGD have used it to target genes whose associated diseases, such as Alzheimer's, do not appear until adulthood. "If PGD were evil, it would be easy to head off such abuse by banning it," Saletan writes. However, PGD "prevents hellish diseases," he says, adding, "In those cases, you have to say yes. And once you start saying yes, it's hard to say no" (Saletan, Washington Post, 9/17).
"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Visit our women's health / gynecology section for the latest news on this subject.
MLA
26 May. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/52145.php>
APA
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/52145.php.
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
Add Your Opinion On This Article
'New Uses For PGD Increasingly Raising Ethical Questions, Opinion Piece Says'Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.
All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
![]()
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.




