AUSTRALIA A new test, which may soon allow parents to genetically screen their unborn child for “abnormalities” and discover its sex just five weeks into pregnancy, offers great potential for abuse by eugenic selection of children. The test is based on the same technique as the smear test used to check women for cancer and could be performed by a GP with the results available in less than 24 hours. Current tests usually wait until 16 weeks gestation and results take three weeks to return.
Dr. Ian Findlay, a senior scientist at the Australian Genome Research Facility, who has spent five years developing the new test, excitedly proclaimed that, “What we can do is make sure, through the ease of use and low cost of our test, that everyone can have access to genetic screening, and have it far earlier than before which, should there be any problems, is far easier on the parents.”
If further clinical trials designed to prove the accuracy of the new test progress well, GPs could begin administering the test within two to three years.
In Vitro Fertilization A Billion Dollar Killing Industry in the United States
WASHINGTON — A New York Times special report, which looks at artificial procreation after 25 years, reveals that in vitro fertilization is a billion dollar a year industry in America causing the deaths of countless human embryos. The Times reports that “Nearly 100,000 attempts in year 2000 led to more than 35,000 babies,” and notes further that “Costs remain high an estimated $10,000 to $15,000 per attempt.”
On a conservative estimate, two to four live human embryos are transferred to the mother’s womb with each attempt. Thus, in the year 2000, with some 300,000 human embryos transferred, 35,000 were born accounting for the death of 265,000 human embryos in the attempt. Moreover, costs for the 100,000 attempts would have reached $1.25 billion.
See the New York Times coverage
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)