Genetic Discrimination in Britain

A fertile woman in England has gone through IVF and put 11 of her embryonic children through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to make sure she wasn’t caring a child which has a gene that can led to breast cancer. She is 14 weeks pregnant.

Using controversial screening techniques, doctors rejected six embryos which tested positive for the cancer gene in favour of "healthy" ones to ensure the child would not contract the disease.

Rejected? Do you mean destroyed?

Killing human embryos with a gene that can lead to breast cancer doesn’t mean the child is ensured of never contract breast cancer. BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 aren’t the only causes of breast cancer.

The couple's doctor, Paul Serhal, medical director of the Assisted Conception Unit at University College London Hospital, said: "Women now have the option of having this treatment to avoid the potentially guilty feeling of passing on this genetic abnormality to a child. This gives us the chance to eradicate this problem in families."

No. This gives people the chance to eradicate their children who have genetic abnormalities. The abnormalities have already been passed on to the embryos. The parent just decide who lives and dies.

One wonders if the parents have any guilty feelings over the six of their embryonic children they discriminated against.