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Designer baby row escalates as doctors set to design 'squint-free' baby
Last updated at 22:52pm on 06.05.07In a world-first, British IVF doctors are genetically screening embryos for a couple to ensure that any baby they have will not inherit a squint.
If screening shows that the child would be born with visual problems, the embryo will be destroyed and a healthier one implanted into the mother-tobe's womb.
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British doctors are to create a baby free from a squint, raising new fears that 'perfect' designer babies will soon be available on order
Critics say the use of screening for an essentially cosmetic problem is another step towards the creation of perfect 'designer' babies made to order by characteristics as trivial as eye colour or hair colour
Yet experts from the London Bridge fertility clinic, which is to carry out the pioneering procedure, say visual problems such as squints cannot always be corrected surgically and can cause sufferers severe emotional distress.
Both the father-to-be, a businessman, and his father inherited a squint that causes their eyes to look downwards or sideways.
Professor Gedis Grudzinskas, the clinic's medical director, said those with a severe squint typically need several operations to correct it, with no guarantee of success.
He said: "Here is a young couple who wish to start their family and know the possibility of such suffering affecting their children.
"They wish to avoid this suffering and I think that is very reasonable."
Another British clinic plans to help a couple who want to have a child without a gene that can lead to a severely misshapen face.
Doctors at the Care fertility clinic in Nottingham will seek permission to create a baby free from a syndrome that causes bones and facial tissue to grow abnormally and can lead to hearing loss.
Dr Simon Fishel, the clinic's managing director, told the Sunday Times: "If a family believe a condition is disfiguring enough to want to carry out embryo screening, then they should have access to this procedure."
The process involves screening three-day-old embryos created through IVF and weeding out those that are genetically flawed.
Until recently, screening was carried out only for genes that invariably cause incurable diseases when inherited - such as those behind cystic fibrosis.
Last year, though, the Government's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, relaxed the rules.
Doctors can now screen for genes that, while raising the risk of illness, do not always lead to the development of the condition. They can also look for embryos free of flaws that cause disease late in life.
The change has led to couples seeking to create babies free of the genes behind inherited breast cancer and a flaw that causes Alzheimer's disease to develop earlier than usual.
Josephine Quintavalle, of pressure group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "The concern is that IVF is not being used as a solution to infertility problems but to further a very sinister quest for the perfect child."
Dr David King, of genetics watchdog Human Genetics Alert, said: "Philosophers love to deride the idea of a slippery slope but here it is.
"We moved from preventing children who will die young to those who might become ill in middle-age.
"Now, we discard those who will live as long as the rest of us but are cosmetically imperfect."
Last night, a spokesman for the HFEA said that each couple's request for genetic screening was considered on a case-by-case basis.
Factors taken into account include family history of disease and its severity.
