From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=001036222020742&rtmo=a44KTu6J&atmo=ooooQ5eb&P4_FOLLOW_ON=/98/11/29/nemb29.html&pg=/et/98/11/29/nemb29.html
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Sunday 29 November 1998
Embryos to be dumped if they fail new DNA test
By Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent
EMBRYOS created during infertility treatment will be subjected to a highly sensitive DNA test for a wide variety of disorders - then discarded if they have any defects.
The single-cell genetic fingerprinting test is the first of its kind and could revolutionise diagnostic techniques used on IVF embryos. While based on the same principle as the DNA tests used to match criminals to the crime scene, the technique is 1,000 times more sensitive.
The new test, developed by a scientist at Leeds University, can take
a single cell and discover not only the sex but a wide variety of chromosomal
defects. It is so sensitive that, unlike the current diagnostic techniques,
it can also determine that it is testing the embryo and not the mother's
genes or contamination in the test tube. Previously, the only embryo test
available determined gender and the
likelihood of Down's syndrome .
But last night pro-life groups condemned the development. Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "All they are looking at is grading human lives, which is degrading. They call it a diagnostic tool but they are not diagnostic tools - they are simply search-and-kill techniques."
Fr Danny McLoughlin, a Scottish Roman Catholic Church spokesman, said: "Human embryos should not be artificially conceived, tested and then discarded. This is starting the process way down the line at a stage we do not think should be happening."
Doctors claim that the new technique means that only "healthy" embryos will be implanted into women undergoing fertility treatment, increasing the live birth rate. The embryos created during fertility treatment are at greater risk than those which develop naturally because of the usually older age of the mother and the drugs she has to take to stimulate her ovaries. It is estimated that one in four attempts at fertility treatment fail.
The Princess of Wales Centre for Reproductive Medicine at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, will this week announce that it is to apply for a licence to use the test once its validation is complete. Dr Geeta Nargund, the head of the centre, said yesterday that by only implanting healthy embryos and discarding the others there was less chance of early miscarriage. She said it was an exciting development and that the centre was looking for funding.
The test's developer, Dr Ian Findlay, has worked closely with the forensic
science service, which is also keen to use the technique to trap criminals.
He said that the test's reliability was far greater than
any other method available.
Dr Findlay has a licence to experiment on embryos but not to implant them. He said yesterday that validation of the techniques would be finished within a year. The first licences for its use on embryos to be implanted will be applied for at the same time.
Dr Findlay said that the test could have wide-ranging uses because of its sensitivity. Pregnant women will be able to have the test which will tell them in less than 24 hours if their baby has Down's syndrome or other chromosomal disorders. Its developers say that this will save women having to wait the two to three weeks it currently takes for the results of an amniocentesis.
dan@southeast.net
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