Settling down and starting a family is what many couples have in mind. It’s a life changing decision the many indivisual choose to endure, however, obstacles and complications have delayed couples from fulfilling their goal. Leaving the chances of pregnancy aside, couples try to prevent many issues that occur with their newborns – infectious and complicated diseases, deformities and abnormalities. In many cultures and races, it is customary, or even the norm, to marry close relatives.

This scientifically has been proven to increase the chances of having your offspring inherit the diseases that have been in the past generations, such as diabetes, cancer, anemia and leukemia. [8] One type of solution that has been discovered is embryo screening and human genetic engineering. The embryo screening, also referred as PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis), is a procedure tested on an embryo to identify any unwanted diseases that is found in the genes of the embryo. This then enables the couples to be aware of the problems that they might be facing if they do get pregnant, and leaving their embryo untouched.

After enlightening couples about the genetic diseases found in the genes, they have to whether to go through the PGD and modify the genes to contract the ones that contain the genetic information about the disease, abnormality, or deformity. “PGD involves extracting a single cell from an eight-cell embryo, created via in vitro fertilization, and analyzing the DNA of that single cell for the presence of one or more disease-associated genetic alterations. ” [6] Then the embryos that are free from diseases are put inside the uterus of the mother which then grows into a fetus.

Preimplantation genetic engineering allows couples to have a chance to fix an innocent child’s life, enabling them to live a healthy lifestyle. It allows couples at jeopardy of transmitting a genetic disease leave their future generations unaffected. This then does not only help the children of the couples transmitting a disease, but the future generations as well as this lessens the chance of passing on the disease [2]. After doctors examine the genes, there are some couples that may not wish to know which one of them are the carriers, so the results are not revealed to the parents.

This can be due to the fact that they might get emotionally upset over the issue, especially women, even though it is technically not their fault. But that is how they he/she might look at the situation. This is known as “non-disclosing PGD”. Some types of diseases that is mostly looked out for the child being in risk include “Huntington’s disease, hereditary ataxia and other adult onset testable diseases. ” [1] A child with a parent affect by Huntington’s disease has a 50% chance of getting the disease. The risk is increased even more if both parents have the disease.

PGD is one great solution for resolving the issue. If couples do get pregnant, and release their unborn baby carries an awful disease such as Huntington’s disease, this might change their mind as they have second thoughts about abortion. A benefit of PGD is that it stops parents going through the emotional state of deciding whether to keep the unborn baby or facing an abortion. This state can actually cause a lot of psychological effects and leave a huge impact on the family, so avoiding such a thing by going through the PGD process is a beneficial solution. The PGD procedure is approximately 96-98% accurate [1].

It is extremely accurate today because for verification, multiple DNA sequences near the defective gene can be tested for, as well as the mutation itself. PGD is also very accurate for repeated miscarriages caused by chromosomal translocations for which about 1. 5% of infertile couples are carriers. [5] Regardless of the benefits and advantages of the technology and science used behind the preimplantation genetic diagnosis procedure, it does not mean it is faultless. First of all, due to it being relatively recent, it is still considered technologically experimental [1].

People cannot entirely depend on technology for solutions to the problem. Regarding this reality, leads to the fact that many health centers and hospitals do not provide this procedure, as they do not yet have the machinery and equipment. This directly means that since it is not widely used yet, therefore it is quite costly. [1] In the US, it costs between $2,000 to $4,500. [9] Many countries do not provide, therefore couples around the world may travel all the way to America to go through the process, which increases the costs of everything even more.