Watchdog Faces Questions About Approval For "Designer Baby" Tests

SUZI LEATHER, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), is to be called before a House of Commons committee to explain her failure to consult Parliament or the public before allowing a London clinic to screen embryos for inherited bowel cancer, as disclosed yesterday by The Times. The decision was made in private by an anonymous five-member licensing committee. MPs, scientists and bioethics groups are alarmed that so controversial a ruling was made without wider discussion. It sets a precedent that could lead to the pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) test applied to dozens of adult-onset diseases. PGD was previously approved only for childhood or untreatable diseases. The familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) bowel cancer does not normally strike until between 20 and 40, and the risk can be substantially reduced by surgery.