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A new study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center indicates that consumers are more interested in using genetic technologies to screen for life threatening diseases than in using the technologies to screen offspring for enhanced traits. Specifically, consumers appear ready to use biotechnologies to test for life altering and threatening medical conditions like mental retardation, blindness, deafness, cancer, heart disease, dwarfism and shortened lifespan from death by 5 years of age—but what they’re not interested in is prenatal genetic testing to screen for traits like tall stature, superior athletic ability and superior intelligence. “Our research has discovered that although...

Babies exposed to high levels of the male hormone testosterone in the womb have an increased risk of autistic traits, groundbreaking research has found. The study found children who were exposed to higher levels of the chemical during foetal development are more likely to display autistic traits from an early age. The discovery takes prenatal screening for autism a significant step closer, raising the possibility that mothers could terminate babies with the condition. It also, more controversially, opens the way for a cure. Researchers made the discovery after monitoring the progress of 235 children whose mothers underwent amniotic fluid tests...

Parents allowed to screen IVF embryo for Alzheimer'sBy GWYNETH REES - More by this author » Last updated at 18:11pm on 20th September 2007  A couple have been given the go ahead to have their embryos screened for a rare form of Alzheimer's   A couple who fear their child could inherit a rare form of Alzheimer's are to undergo embryo screening to eliminate the risk. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has approved the tests, which will allow embryos of the parents, who have a history of the disease in their family, to be screened for the genetic...

Boy or girl? Almost half of U.S. fertility clinics that offer embryo screening say they allow couples to choose the sex of their child, the most extensive survey of the practice suggests. Sex selection without any medical reason to warrant it was performed in about 9 percent of all embryo screenings last year, the survey found. Another controversial procedure - helping parents conceive a child who could supply compatible cord blood to treat an older sibling with a grave illness - was offered by 23 percent of clinics, although only 1 percent of screenings were for that purpose in 2005....