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Designer babies dispute flares over screening laws change

Britain's fertility watchdog is expected to provoke bitter controversy this week by relaxing the regulations governing so-called designer babies.

It is considering allowing parents to screen IVF embryos solely for "desirable characteristics" and not just to weed out serious genetic diseases.

The review by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority follows pressure from parents who want to combine IVF and genetic screening techniques to create babies whose umbilical-cord blood could save the life of a sick sibling.

Mohammed Taranissi, a leading fertility doctor who was invited by the authority to submit a test case licence application for the technique, said on Friday: "I have been told informally that they are very likely to change their minds."

Ethics and legal experts at the authority are understood to be keen for a change. They believe that existing policy, which allows some couples to create donor siblings using IVF but bans others, is inconsistent.

Anti-abortion campaigners argue, however, that a U-turn would open the door to a disturbing new era of eugenics.

The decision is expected at a time when the future of the authority is in doubt. UK Health Secretary John Reid will announce next week whether it is to be scrapped in a cull of health quangos.

If the rules are relaxed, the first couple to benefit could be Joe and Julie Fletcher of Moira, Northern Ireland. Their two-year-old son, Joshua, suffers from the blood disorder Diamond Blackfan anaemia and needs a transplant of stem cells from a matching donor.

Dr Taranissi has applied for permission to screen embryos created during IVF so that the couple's next child would be a suitable donor.

[original article]
By David Derbyshire in London
July 18, 2004
The Sun-Herald

Posted by thinkum at July 17, 2004 06:48 PM