Time to open up genetic testing pre-implementation of ivf .
Tokyo- Testing of fertilized eggs during in-vitro fertilization treatment to spot genetic diseases before pregnancy are going to be expanded to hide conditions that develop after adulthood, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology said earlier this year, during a decision already questioned by one disabled group.
Preimplantation genetic testing, first approved by the society in the year 2004, examines chromosomes and genes of fertilized eggs at the request of people concerned about the likelihood of passing on a genetic trait. Applicants are required to be undergoing In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment.
But the testing has often met criticism since it could lead to only fertilized eggs without abnormalities being selected as deserve life.
Given the moral concerns, society has been examining each application submitted by medical institutions supported requests by prospective parents on a case-by-case basis. It has allowed testing just for serious genetic diseases, apart from cases during which women suffer miscarriages repeatedly.
Under society’s internal regulations, serious genetic diseases are currently defined as conditions that “severely impair one’s lifestyle or threaten his or her life before becoming an adult.”
One such disease is Duchenne dystrophy, a genetic disease involving progressive muscle weakness.
According to the society’s final report compiled in year April, the definition will add the word “in principle” before “becoming an adult,” effectively expanding the scope of diseases that might be subject to genetic testing.
It also added requirements that diseases have not any effective treatment at now or that treatment imposes a big burden on patients.
If a few want to conduct preimplantation genetic testing, they have to receive guidance and their hospitals got to apply to the society, which can summarize views on whether to conduct the tests.
For genetic diseases that had not been examined previously, the society will conduct screening supported views to be submitted by a gaggle of experts regarding particular diseases.
Society will start examining applications under the new definition after it revises internal regulations.
Nobuko Mikata, head of a group of people suffering from neuromuscular diseases, said the society’s decision provoked “shock and anger” among its members.
“We can live our lives with disabilities if there’s support from society,” said the Network of Peers with Neuromuscular Diseases, which incorporates patients of diseases that are subject to genetic testing.
“We oppose every test which may exclude lives because they have disabilities,” the network said. “We hope that the social organisation, during which individuals without disabilities substitute the superior position, will confront our existence which society will catch up with our beliefs. The weight of each life is equal.”
The discussion on expanding the scope of preimplantation genetic testing began in January last year, after a patient with genetic eye cancer, which is never life-threatening, applied for preimplantation genetic testing for the condition.
At a council meeting of the society in February, a woman who says her son inherited eye cancer said, “My sense of guilt never disappears when I think that my son has to suffer from inconvenience and anxiety. If patients and their families want to conduct testing, I would like it to be approved swiftly.”
In all, the society has accepted three hundred and thirty-six applications for tests aimed at preventing births of babies with serious genetic diseases and approved three and two cases as of July 30.
SOURCE
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/03fef21b72e1-japan-to-allow-wider-preimplantation-genetic-testing-of-eggs-in-ivf.html