ProNurse

By Kate Loveys

Couples are to be offered a gene test over the internet which will screen for more than 100 inherited diseases, it emerged yesterday.

The saliva test, which identifies if a parent is carrying genetic mutations that could cause life-threatening illnesses, is likely to provoke ethical controversy.

It is to set to be launched within weeks in the UK.

There are fears the test – which will detect conditions such as cystic fibrosis or spinal muscular atrophy – will lead to a rise in abortions and embryo screening and will cause needless alarm.

Some geneticists also believe it could herald an age of eugenics.

Currently in the UK, those with a family history of several of the 109 disorders can have screening on the NHS on a case-bycase basis.

Targeted programmes are also offered to certain ethnic groups, such as people of African and Caribbean descent, who are known to have a higher risk of sickle cell anaemia.

But the new test, developed by American company Counsyl, bypasses the role of doctors, who have previously controlled access to such tests.

It is to be launched by the Bridge fertility clinic in Central London within weeks and Counsyl then plans to make it available in the UK over the internet.

The tests, costing about £400 per person or £700 for a couple, will show whether people are carrying mutant genes that cause the 109 disorders.

If a person has a single copy of one of these genes, they are not usually affected by the condition.

But if their partner is also a carrier, their children have a one in four chance of inheriting two copies of the mutant gene, thereby developing the disease.

About one in 165 of the couples Counsyl tested in the U.S. were both carriers of the same mutation, though this may reflect the test’s appeal to people at high risk.

Prospective parents can then opt for IVF and screen their embryos so that only healthy ones are implanted in the womb.

It will also be possible for the tests to be carried out during pregnancy – which could result in more abortions.

Frances Flinter, consultant clinical geneticist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, and a member of the Government’s Human Genetics Commission, said the test had an uncomfortable ‘eugenic flavour’.

‘It plays unnecessarily on people’s fears,’ she told the Times.

Balaji Srinivasan, Counsyl’s chief technology officer, said the test was inspired by screening in the Jewish community, which has virtually wiped out a fatal recessive disorder called Tay-Sachs disease by discouraging marriages between carriers.

‘It is something that should be on the radar of every adult before having a child,’ Mr Srinivasan said.

Originally published by By Kate Loveys.

© 2010 Daily Mail; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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