Developing an Infant A La Carte, Reality or Fiction?

Till very recently, the concept of conceiving a baby of choice through Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS), based on specific physical appearance, or physical ability was a pure fiction. Nevertheless, Next Generation Sequencing technology and its use in research and clinical medical diagnosis are making genome modification a truth. Scientifically speaking, we are not far from having the ability to personalize the DNA cosmetics of our brand-new generation. It is already typical for IVF centers to screening embryos against commons hereditary conditions such as Beta-Thalassemia, Cystic Fibrosis, and Down syndrome and so on

Next generation sequencing of human Genome is ending up being a typical practice in healthcare and medical research laboratories round the word. Human genome information base and gene function studies are growing at a light speed, with unmatched accuracy.

In PGS, the level of modification is inheritably restricted, for instance you can not cherry choice any feature you want, however you can definitely screen for preferable features if they are offered amongst tested embryos. For example, eye color, gender, and predisposition to particular kind of cancers, and so on. In the near future, as human genome information base grows, and our understanding of gene function enhances; we may be able to select features such as height, intelligence, physical ability and more. Technically, the more we know about our genes, the simpler genome modification will become, the question is whether it is ethical to introduce biases in our selection of future generations.

From the medical perspective, NGS-based Preimplantation Genetic Screening offers moms and dads an effective tool to pick embryos versus any suspicious mutations, and minimize the danger of genetic illness. However, there are a great deal of disease triggering mutations that are still uncharacterized, for that reason hard to prevent.

The notion of selecting a child based of non-medical requirements, such as physical strength, intelligence, and sport performance may raise some controversies. If such practice ends up being common, we might be creating a society made from very stars, neighboring an under grown society, made of unflavored kids.

In the long, as genome personalization becomes more feasible, we might see groups and organizations raise ethical concerns, which if ended up being strong enough, may force the US congress to change the law to stop the controversy. The balance between popular opinion and legislator’s agenda will draw the map of what is permitted and where technology needs to stop. Meanwhile, Preimplantation Genetic Screening will continue to grow in the medical field, improving the lifestyle of future IVF kids, however as innovation presses difficult towards gene discovery, non-medical genome customization may be conceived.

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