Wednesday, December 5, 2018

IQ and Disease Testing in IVF Embryos'

A new genetic test is on its way to the Unite States that screen IVF embryo's for a low IQ and high risk diseases such as breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. People in society have always had the want to create the "perfect baby". New methods that have arose may make this possible. IVF embryonic genes are able to be tested for high risk diseases and low IQ created by the firm Genetic Prediction. These test have not been used yet but the firm is working closely with many IVF clinics so it can be made available to their customers. The firm reports that when it comes to intelligence can only determine "mental disability" in the embryonic state. These forms of testing is not available in the United States just yet.

The Genetic Prediction firm has become the first company to make polygenic risk scores in embryo's available. Their purpose of these tests is to screen out any of the embryo's testing for the risk of specific medical conditions. The test that they have created for "mental disability" is considered controversial where they do not have enough accuracy to determine the IQ for each embryo. On the other hand, they can determine certain outliers that give people the change to not pick the embryos that have a potential IQ below 25. It cannot be understood how many other genes are involved in low risk of heart disease and high intelligence. Any kind of genetic testing has been impossible to detect certain genes that play a role in diseases and development. Now with may of the technological advances, we are able to evolve testing strategies to ensure a healthy individual. I wonder if people in the Unite States would be interested in this kind of testing of IVF embryos. If these genetics test are available in the United States, I believe it would not get a warm welcome from everyone. I see it as picking and choosing a certain child, whereas we're all the same and each deserve an equal amount of love and attention.


Article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24032041-900-exclusive-a-new-test-can-predict-ivf-embryos-risk-of-having-a-low-iq/
Related Article: http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/


1 comment:

  1. I think polygenic risk scores can be very beneficial in the medical field by testing for increased risk for specific diseases. Know if an embryo is at high risk for a disease can help make decisions in the pregnancy and help prepare for the future. I understand the ethical debate on testing for lower IQ because it focuses on one thing an ignores others. I would fear that if this happened wide scale it would lead to less diversity.

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