Gene tests 'won't lead to designer babies', researchers say

Parviz and Kelli Najafi want to use PGD testing to have a child free of the haemophilia gene. Picture / Craig Baxter

Government funding for genetic testing of human embryos will not bring about the age of the designer baby, say Otago University researchers.

Their report, "Choosing the Genes for Future Children", has been released at Parliament after six months' research into the issues posed by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

The technique, which involves gene-testing embryos before they are implanted in the mother, has led to concerns about the emergence of designer babies, where those with cash will be able to choose children with desirable traits.

But the university researchers, led by law faculty dean Professor Mark Henaghan, have come down on the side of the gene technology, after work involving experts in New Zealand and overseas.

"PGD is seen by some as the beginning of a slippery slope towards designing the perfect baby," Professor Henaghan said.

"But in reality the procedure cannot be used to screen for intelligence or physical attributes - in other words, it cannot be used to improve or modify embryos."

The Government has budgeted $500,000 a year to pay for PGD where there is risk of passing on a serious genetic disorder.

That is likely to involve about 40 cycles of PGD a year. About 110 further cycles are expected to be paid for privately, mainly to detect chromosomal disorders that can lead to miscarriage.

For Dunedin couple Parviz and Kelli Najafi, the Government money cannot come on stream soon enough.

The couple will soon begin a second round of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) using PGD to test for haemophilia.

Mrs Najafi's father, Ian Smith, died aged just 58 after living with haemophilia all his life and spending his final years in a slow spiral marked by the use of strong drugs for pain.

"It killed him in the end," Mrs Najafi said.

The couple are determined that their child will not suffer from the hereditary condition, for which Mrs Najafi carries the gene.

They have already spent $10,000 to $15,000 to have PGD performed once, and are determined to try again after the resulting pregnancy miscarried.

The Government money has not yet been made available, frustrating the couple, who say using PGD effectively saves the state the cost of looking after a sick child.

Mrs Najafi, 34, who had to go through the trauma of an abortion when an earlier fetus was found to have the gene, has no doubts that PGD should be avail-able.

"People can call it designer babies and think we are choosing the hair colour, the colour of their eyes, but we know why we are doing it," she said.

The university researchers have questioned a number of areas of New Zealand's regulatory regime concerning PGD.

Wording in an order-in-council recently adopted under the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act appeared to have extended the legal uses of PGD to test for susceptibility to conditions that manifest themselves only later in life if at all.

The report found that was beyond the scope of public consultation on the issue.

It also questioned the regime's ban on sex selection, as there could be non-medical circumstances where it was justified, and limits on the ability to do tissue typing to check whether an embryo could go on to donate tissue to a sick sibling.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES