British woman pregnant with cancer-gene-free 'designer baby': report

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — A British woman has become the first in the country to conceive a "designer baby" selected specifically to avoid an inherited cancer, The Times reported.

The woman, who was not identified, used controversial genetic screening technology to ensure she does not pass on to her child the condition retinoblastoma, an hereditary form of eye cancer from which she suffers.

Doctors tested embryos created by the woman and her partner using in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) methods for the cancer gene. Only unaffected embryos were implanted in her womb, the newspaper said.

It suggested the woman's pregnancy would increase controversy over the procedure -- pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) -- because critics say it involves destroying otherwise healthy...