LIFE DIGEST: New test in Britain likely to mark more embryos for death
- Jul 10, 2006 - comment
WASHINGTON (BP)—A breakthrough in genetic testing likely will mean intentional destruction for more human embryos.
British scientists have developed a new technique in screening early embryos that is expected to increase the number of diseases that can be detected from about 200 to almost 6,000, according to the Guardian, an online newspaper. The method, known as preimplantation genetic haplotyping (PGH), will enable fertility specialists to choose embryos without indications of potential illness for implantation in a woman’s womb and to discard those that fail the test.
“[I]t is selective murder,” said Mary Ellen Douglas of the British pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition. “Every child is a human life, no matter how difficult the circumstances. Once a human being has been created, there is nothing we can do -– once they’ve been created we can’t kill them for any reason.”
Though PGH was first developed in 2004, researchers at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ hospitals in London have refined the process. After in vitro fertilization treatment, a single cell is extracted from each embryo for analysis. One or two embryos without genetic disorders are implanted.
Doctors at Guy’s Hospital have used the method to select healthy embryos for implantation in seven women, according to the Guardian. Five of the women are pregnant and have passed the first trimester, the newspaper reported.
Douglas, however, predicted PGH would “lead to more gender selection, which should horrify everyone,” according to LifeSiteNews.com.
BRING ON THE CLONES -– Ian Wilmut, the leader of the research team that cloned the first mammal, is promoting human cloning for reproductive purposes.
Wilmut, whose Scottish team cloned Dolly the sheep, has reversed his previous opposition to reproductive cloning for human beings. He detailed his position in a book yet to be published titled “After Dolly.”
In an excerpt in the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, Wilmut contended cloning should be considered when it is proven to be safe. The clones should be genetically modified to prevent the birth of babies with impairments or diseases.
“Doctors should be able to offer at-risk couples the opportunity to conceive with IVF methods, break down the resulting embryos into cells, correct any serious genetic defects in these cells then clone demonstrably healthy cells to create a new embryo that can be implanted to start a pregnancy,” Wilmut wrote.
The implanted clone would have the faulty gene repaired in each of its cells, and the original embryo would be destroyed, according to the Telegraph.
The “early embryo is not a person and I see the use of nuclear transfer to prevent a child’s having a dreadful disease as far less controversial,” Wilmut wrote.
Wesley Smith, a bioethicist and a lawyer for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, said on his weblog, “The slippery slope is sliding away even before we know whether humans can actually be cloned. And of course, even if we could do ‘therapeutic’ reproductive cloning, it wouldn’t be very long before the solipsistic began to demand the right to enhance their offspring to fit parental desires -– backed by many bioethicists and members of the scientific establishment who only oppose reproductive cloning now because it isn’t ‘safe.’”
Reproductive cloning is widely opposed in the United States and other countries.
Wilmut wrote his new book with Roger Highfield, the Telegraph’s science editor.
CHURCH IN COURT? –- The Roman Catholic Church may be prosecuted in court someday for its pro-life stance, a Vatican official recently said.
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said he fears “that faced with current legislation, speaking in defense of life, of the rights of the family, is becoming in some societies a crime against the state, a form of disobedience of the government, a discrimination against women.”
“The Church risks being brought in front of some international court, if the debate gets any more tense, if the most radical opinions are heeded,” the cardinal told Famiglia Cristiana, a Catholic Italian newspaper, according to Reuters News Service.
Lopez Trujillo criticized Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden –- for “exporting” policies that undermine life and marriage, according to the report.
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