What Are Designer Babies?

"Designed babies", also known as "therapeutic test-tube babies" or "designed test-tube babies", refers to the selection of his or her genetic makeup before birth to ensure that the child has certain advantages or avoids certain defects That kind of child is designer baby. In June 2012, China's first design baby was born.

Design baby

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a prerequisite for designing babies. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis has entered the medical application field for 15 years. About 1,000 babies were born into this world through this technology. This technology was developed by Winston Hammersmith Hospital

1. First, sperm and egg cells of a couple are fertilized in vitro, and early embryo culture is performed.

2. Culture to blastocyst stage, take trophoblast cells for DNA analysis and identification.

3. Keep the blastocysts without genetic defects implanted in the womb of another woman and continue to develop into a fetus.

In a biological sense, these new embryos are designed to have one biological father and two biological mothers, and, after processing by genetic technology, newborn babies will not suffer from intractable muscles, brain, heart, and digestive system. Disease, and because scientists have replaced defective DNA with healthy genetic material,

British anti-abortion group issued a statement saying that the government's green light for "designing babies" is equivalent to turning on "

The focus of the two research groups is different, one focuses on the physiological defects of IVFs at birth, and the other focuses on the underweight of IVFs at birth. Leading the focus is on Michelle Hansen, a scientist at the University of Western Australia research team on the research of physiological defects in IVFs. The chance of a defect is twice as high as that of a naturally pregnant baby with a severe physical defect. "

In another study that focused on infant weight, researchers compared 42,463 test-tube babies born in the United States between 1996 and 1997 with 4.3 million ordinary babies born in 1997. "IVFs are 2.6 times more underweight at birth than ordinary babies," said Laura Schaeffer, a medical expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta who led the study. Underweight newborns are more likely to cause complication. ^[1]

United States

The earliest rescue of genetically ill children using human genetic technology was an American couple Lisa and Jack Nash. Their 6-year-old daughter Molly suffered from a congenital immune system disorder, but could not find a suitable bone marrow donor, so the Nash couple adopted the expert "designing a baby" advice. On August 9, 2000, their second child, Adam Nash, was born. When Adam was an embryo, scientists were selected from several embryos, because Adam's gene was the best match for Molly, and his umbilical cord blood also contained Molly's much-needed stem cells.

June 2002, United States

1. Egg quality: The older a woman is, the worse the egg quality is. Over 35 years of age, egg quality begins to age gradually. Women over 38 years of age have a success rate of less than 50% for IVF, while over 40 years of age, the success rate will be less than 50 or even lower.

2, the quality of semen: the number of sperm and motility can determine the fertilization of the egg.

3. The quality of the embryo: The quality of the embryo is an important factor for the success rate of IVF. Good embryos are easy to succeed, and bad embryos are not easy to succeed.

4, the quality of the endometrium: the endometrium is the place where the embryo implants. If the endometrium is thick enough, the blood flow is rich, and the cells divide well, it will increase the embryo implantation rate. In contrast, the endometrium is too thin and the blood flow is insufficient Endometrium, which lacks hormone secretion, makes it difficult for embryos to implant.

5. Embryo implantation surgery: It is one of the important factors for the success of IVF. Properly placing the embryo in an easy-to-implant position can easily increase the success rate.