PROFESSIONEarly genetic testing puts more slip in slopeEthics Forum. Sept. 6, 2004. Scenario: What ethical challenges does embryo selection pose for physicians? How would you respond to a patient or couple who requests preimplantation genetic diagnosis to achieve desired or preferred characteristics in their offspring? Would you offer your help or referral if the purpose were to create a savior sibling for an older child with medical problems? Reply: These questions bring to mind a scene from the 1997 movie "Gattaca." A geneticist is meeting with a couple as their eight-cell embryos float on a video screen overhead. The geneticist explains: "Your extracted eggs, Maria, have been fertilized with Antonio's sperm and we have performed an analysis of the resulting pre-embryos. After screening, we are left with two healthy boys and two healthy girls. Naturally, no critical predispositions to any of the major inheritable diseases. ... You have already specified blue eyes, dark hair and fair skin." Science fiction gives us an estimate of what technical capabilities might emerge, as well as a guess as to how people will respond to new opportunities and powers. Since nothing is more important to most parents than their children, grappling with the potential for technical control over the nature of our children will remain enormously controversial ground. The technical ability to detect fetuses with serious malformations and heritable conditions has expanded rapidly since its beginnings in the 1960s, now including a host of testing and imaging capabilities. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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