Exames a embriões

O watchdog da fertilidade no Reino Unido recomendou que se fizessem testes aos embriões de pais com certas propensões geneticamente cancerígenas. Ora bem, estes testes, cientificamente avançados, são uma forma inaceitável de "limpeza genética":

Josephine Quintavalle, director of the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "PGD is currently nothing more than a weapon of destruction, aimed at the ruthless elimination of any embryo which does not conform to eugenic concepts of perfection.

"Given the permissive track record of the HFEA, it is hardly surprising that we now see them recommending the inclusion of lower penetrance cancer susceptibility on the growing hit list of undesirable genetic conditions to be put to the test.

"What should really be under the axe is not the unfortunate embryo but the HFEA itself, which has neither the moral training nor expertise to make these decisions on behalf of a just society."

Rachel Hurst, of Disability Awareness in Action, said: "If you say that it's OK to say that you can eliminate embryos which would lead to disabled people, you're saying that disabled people are not people.

"And you're saying that their quality of life is not worth living, which is discriminatory and extremely prejudicial."