Most couples desire a child without a disease. Some have more specific preferences, such as gender or appearance. Couples that visit in vitro fertilization clinics now have a variety of new options, courtesy of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
Susannah Baruch is a director at the Washington-based Genetics and Public Policy Center, which recently conducted a study of IVF clinics and the services they offer.
Baruch said PGD is the genetic testing of embryos through in vitro fertilization.
According to the survey, approximately 74 percent of IVF clinics provide PGD services to its patients.
Of this 74 percent, most clinics said they offer PGD to screen for disease. Baruch said some clinics also offer more controversial services.
According to the survey, approximately 42 percent of IVF-PGD clinics have performed PGD for non-medical sex selection. Approximately 24 percent of clinics have performed PGD to assist families in having a child who is an immunological match for an existing seriously-ill child so the new child can be a stem cell donor.
Marc Portmann, senior embryologist at Reproductive Associates of Delaware, said PGD is a complex procedure.
"We take a cell out of an eight-cell embryo. That's a three-day-old embryo," Portmann said. "It should represent the genetic constitution of the rest of the embryo at that point. Then we send it out to one of the three or four clinics in this country who can do the analysis."
Philosophy professor David Silver said this procedure raises many ethical issues.
"The strongest argument is going to be that life begins at conception and that this process is the killing or wasting of human life," Silver said, referring to the destruction or freezing of undesired embryos.
He said he does not agree with the argument that this process interferes with the course of nature.
"Each time you visit the doctor, you are interfering with nature," Silver said. "Each time you build a house, you are interfering with nature by not letting the rain fall on your head. We interfere with nature all the time and we think it is perfectly acceptable to do so."
Audrey Dandoy, president of the university's Pro-Life Vanguard, said she disagrees with the use of PGD as a selective process.
"I am not against screening to be prepared," Dandoy said. "But it shouldn't determine whether or not you keep your child.
"I feel that it shows a lack of respect for human life. It says, 'We chose you because you satisfy these conditions.' "
Dandoy said screening for disease is possibly the worst form of PGD.
"It's sending the message to disabled people that they are not worthwhile people," she said. "If you talk to them, I'm sure they'd say they'd rather be born with this disease than not be born at all."
Dandoy said screening for gender should be a feminist issue because she said boys tend to be preferred over girls when gender selection is possible.
"We are opening the door to something scary," she said.
Junior Laura West said she could understand screening embryos for disease.
"I can see it being ethical in the sense that you do not want your children to have these illnesses," she said.
Senior Noah Abrahams said he agreed with screening for health purposes, but limits may be hard to set.
"I definitely would not want a child that I know would not be able to function," Abrahams said. "But it's such a hard line to draw. Once you screen for disease, what's to stop you from screening for other things?"
Baruch said selection of specific traits, such as eye or hair color, is not yet possible.
"A lot of people have speculated a lot of things," she said. "But we don't have a genetic test right now for tall or strong. A lot of these traits have multiple genetic and environmental factors."
Portmann said he does not rule out the possibility of more specific characteristic screening in the future.
"We've made unbelievable advances," he said. "It may sound ridiculous and absurd, but maybe 15 years from now it will be a common thing. I don't know. It's up to the public to decide."
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