Current problems of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis in the Context of Parental Aspirations

Abstract

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is designed to assist in conception when a serious hereditary disease affects a couple and it is necessary to screen out embryos carrying chromosomal or genetic abnormalities. The procedure may therefore be lawfully applied only for medical reasons to avoid a particular risk of transmitting genetic defects to a child regardless if the couple is infertile or not. In practice, PGD raises many ethical objections as a method which – as the doctrine says – commodifies reproduction and enables unwanted practice of positive eugenics (a selection of embryos of a particular sex or carrying certain qualities, let alone particular defects (deafness, blindness, etc.). Parents may be prone to choose the features of their future child and decide, by means of PGD, to have a baby of a certain sex, genetic make-up, or to conceive a tissue match for a living sibling. The legislator should therefore intervene, establish the normative framework for the practice of PGD, and keep continuous control over its application to prevent the abuse of the child’s welfare.