PGD

Ok, the first PGD post.

I was avoiding this post for a while, after all I am trying to live my life (over, or despite PGD).

PGD, or pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is basically a technique to select the healthy ones from a batch of embryos. It looks at a tiny little bit of all the genetic information. However it raises many difficult ethical questions and I am afraid I cannot answer those. But I can try to discuss them.

1) Is PGD a technique for creating super-smart or super-strong people?

No. You can only work with the parent's genes and if the parents are not clever enough (although of course cleverness depends on more than one gene and I think it also depends on the environment) the child will not be clever enough either. Remember, it is not prepairing, it is selecting.

2) Can it be used for sex selection?

Unfortunately, yes. Worse there are clinics in some countries actually doing sex selection. I cannot possibly imagine how those doctors working there decided to agree when there are plenty of decent places to work in assisted conception as unfortunately the demand is quite high.

Lucky though it is not allowed anywhere in the UK and the whole of Europe.

Some say the Beckhams used PGD to have a daughter but I don't beleive it. It is perfectly normal to have a daughter after having three sons, it happened to my sister-in-law as well. According to my sister everyone will say that that they kept trying (I mean my sister-in-law, not the Beckhams local gossip is far more exciting for me) until they had a girl. But I don't beleive it either. My sister-in-law is still young and according to my husband all their babies were accidents. I am looking forward to meet my new nephew or niece in around three years time.

3) Is it any better then termination during pregnancy?

Yes. It must be, otherwise we made a horrible mistake. I hope and pray and beleive that it is different. For me the tiny little 8-cell embryo is only a possibility whereas the foetus in the womb is already a being. I would never terminate my future child just because he/she has FAP. That is actually the reason why we choose FAP. We didn't want to terminate yet we didn't want to pass this disease on either, so PGD was the perfect choice for us.

4) Will PGD screen for other diseases as well?

No. Maybe in the United States, but definitely not in the UK. The tehcnique consists of taking one cell out of an embryos and actually destroying it during the testing process. It would be very difficult to test for other things as well. We have the same possiblity for our children to have random genetic diseases like anyone else. I was dreading this: what if i wnt though all the heart-ache and difficulties just for my child to have something even worse? But we were lucky, Lily is perfectly healthy.