Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Scientists around the world are hailing the birth of the first baby who was pre-screened for genetic abnormalities in a laboratory using a procedure that reads the child’s entire genome, thus enabling doctors to discard embryos that do not appear to be “perfect.”
The Guardian is reporting that Connor Levy, who was born in Philadelphia on May 18, is the first baby to be born after having his entire genome scanned for abnormalities. The process, named next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a new and faster way to read whole genomes quickly and cheaply and is expected to “transform the selection of embryos in IVF clinics,” the Guardian reports.
In Connor’s case, scientists only looked at chromosomes, which are the structures that hold genes, to determine if he had any abnormal chromosones that could lead to spontaneous miscarriage or genetic disorders such as Down’s or Turner syndrome. The new testing enabled Connor’s parents, Marybeth Scheidts, 36, and David Levy, 41, to have a better chance of carrying a baby to term.
The new procedure is part of an international study with Dagan Wells, a fertility specialist at Oxford University, that will eliminate the problem of embryos with abnormal chromosones that account for half of all miscarriages.
“The chances of an embryo having the wrong number of chromosomes rises with the mother’s age, and potentially with the father’s,” the Guardian reports. “For women in their 20s, one in 10 embryos may have the wrong number of chromosomes, but for women in their 40s, more than 75 percent can be faulty.”
In this case, 13 embryos were produced by the Levys in the laboratory. Doctors took cells from each and sent them to Wells in Oxford for testing. He was able to set aside three “perfect” embryos for use by the Levys.
“Tests showed that while most of the embryos looked healthy, only three had the right number of chromosomes,” says the Guardian.
One embryo was implanted and was carried to term while the other two are presently in cold storage for possible future use.
Scientists are hailing the procedure because it may soon give them the ability to read all of the DNA of IVF embryos before choosing which ones to implant in the mother. For instance, instead of just focusing on spotting embryos with abnormal chromosomes, they could spot babies whose genes indicate a propensity toward developing certain diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimers.
“It is hard to overstate how revolutionary this is,” said Michael Glassner, who treated the couple at the Main Line Fertility clinic in Philadelphia. “This increases pregnancy rates by 50 percent across the board and reduces miscarriages by a similar margin. It will be much less expensive. In five years, this will be state of the art and everyone who comes for IVF will have it.”
In Britain, however, doctors are not permitted to select embryos for anything other than the most serious medical reasons. But, as the Guardian reports, this new and much cheaper means will make it much more difficult to resist using the technique to screen out children whose genes say they’re likely to develop serious diseases later in life.
“You can start to have a very scary picture painted if you talk about height and hair color and so on,” said Glassner. “We have to make sure this is used judiciously.”
How – or if – they will go about doing this is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, the slippery slope continues to slide downhill.
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