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Eugenic Abortion Explosion Feared as New Test Will Screen Embryos for 6,000 Diseases

By Gudrun Schultz

UNITED KINGDOM, June 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – British fertility researchers have increased the number of potential genetic malformations they are able to detect in human embryos from 200 to almost 6,000, the Guardian reported today.

Using new procedures for scanning genetic information, the testing allows researchers to identify a vast array of previously undetectable genetic diseases.

Researchers are hailing the study as a breakthrough, saying it will allow parents to ensure they bear a healthy child. But religious leaders and life advocates have condemned the technology as immoral since it leads to the death of thousands of “discarded” embryos. Although the technology could conceivably lead to increasingly advanced in-utero treatments for children conceived with treatable diseases, similar technology is rarely used for this purpose. The vast majority of detectable diseases are untreatable in the womb, and instead the detection procedures usually lead to the abortion of the potentially unhealthy unborn child.

“Every child is a human life, no matter how difficult the circumstances,” Mary Ellen Douglas of Campaign Life Coalition told LifeSiteNews. “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.”

Although researchers suggest the technology will result in less “wasted” embryos, for instance by allowing the destruction of boy embryos to be limited to just those carrying male-specific genetic abnormalities, in fact the technology will likely result in a massive increase of embryo death as children are “screened out” for an increasing variety of potential genetic problems.

“In fact, it is selective murder,” said Ms. Douglas. “It is also going to lead to more gender selection, which should horrify everyone.”

Known as preimplantation genetic haplotyping, the technique was first developed by Ali al-Hellani, a Saudi Arabian fertility specialist in 2004. It has since been perfected by the work of British researchers. The research team has applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for permission to test for further rare genetic diseases.

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