Parliament committee divided on genetic testing
Reaching agreement was not easy at a meeting between Members of the Temporary Committee on Human Genetics to discuss antenatal and postnatal genetic testing on 26 and 27 March. Whilst some speakers stressed the need to increase the chances for parents with serious diseases to give birth to normal children, others were highly critical of the systematic destruction of embryos revealed to have genetic abnormalities. Dr Hille Haker of the Centre of ethics in the sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany, deplored the fact that antenatal testing which revealed genetic abnormalities would nearly always lead to the destruction of the embryo, even when postnatal treatment was sometimes possible. She also questioned the ethics of selecting healthy embryos. Opposing this view, Professor Paul Devroey of the Centre of reproductive medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles argued that such tests provided an opportunity to prevent the transmission of diseases from one generation to the next, although he did concede that the tests do still have a fairly high error rate. Most MEPs were united in agreeing that the right to know and the right not to know were both important, although Belgian MEP Paul Lannoye questioned how the right not to know could be maintained in the information society. Irish MEP Avril Doyle criticised scientific and political circles for not having reacted to the announcement of plans for reproductive cloning to help sterile couples, although guest speakers noted that the media hype which had followed this announcement had overshadowed the real implications of scientific breakthroughs in this area. A report published on 29 March by the UK House of Lords Science and Technology Committee meanwhile claims that changes in regulation and investment must be made in order to benefit as much as possible from the potentials of human genetic research. Genetic databases were highlighted as an important tool for seeing these benefits. 'Genetic databases are the key that will unlock the health benefits of the Human Genome Project,' said Lord Oxburgh, who chaired the UK inquiry. 'They will help us understand how much of our health is determined by the genes we inherit, how much by the way we live, and what we can do about it.' The Lords concluded however that special regulation of human genetic databases as such is neither necessary or feasible due to concerns about individuals' data contained in the databases and legislation to protect such information.