PARENTS who fear the prospect of abortion due to genetic problems are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that unborn children are free of genetic diseases.
Hundreds of parents with no fertility problems are making appointments at Monash IVF and – before going through the artificial pregnancy process – are having embryos tested to ensure genetic conditions plaguing their families like Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis or spinal muscular atrophy are not passed on to their children.
The testing process is known as as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and has a 98per cent success rate.
Couples who do not go through the PGD process have a 50per cent chance of passing on a genetic disease if they conceive naturally.
PGD co-ordinator Dr Elissa Osbourne from Monash IVF says it’s hard for parents to see family members suffer from a genetic condition.
“They want to know they’ve done everything to prevent their children from going through the same thing, ” Dr Osbourne said.
“A lot of them struggle with the concept of termination of pregnancy and they’d rather know that if they do get pregnant, that the pregnancy is unaffected.”