Pre Implantation Diagnostics Essay

Submitted By mubasheerahmed
Words: 442
Pages: 2

Since its introduction about 12 years ago, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) has been applied to patients of advanced maternal age, repeated implantation failure or repeated miscarriage as a way of detecting the chromosomically best embryos; studies have shown aneuploid embryos either fail to implant or do not develop past early stages of pregnancy so by implanting only euploid embryos higher implantation and lower miscarriage rates can be expected (Treff et al, 2010).
PGD has also been performed on fertile couples who are at risk of a specific inherited genetic disorder to identify “healthy” embryos for implantation. Expectedly, there has been controversy around these techniques, such as HLA typing for sibling donors, screening for late-onset diseases and sex choosing for social reasons, nevertheless, these conceptions have been overgrown by the perception of the diseases being detected as high risk and high penetrance conditions. However, PGD is likely to become more controversial as new technologies increase the type of genes and diseases that can be diagnosed. The latest of these technologies being developed are Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) arrays, which allows simultaneous testing of specific genetic diseases and aneuploidy in each embryo. The amount of information that can be obtained through this test is vast; it can detect chromosomal abnormalities, predisposition to common diseases, physical characteristics and late-onset disorders (even if they are not requested). (Harper & SenGupta, 2011).
This broad potential of SNP arrays makes it a target for ethical questioning; there are a number of factors that need to be considered to define when its use is appropriate and justifiable, including: the perception of seriousness of the disease of those seeking treatment, the risk of the disorder being present in the embryo, the likelihood of the offspring