Parental demand for ‘designer babies screened to lack faulty genes will grow dramatically over the next decade, with new discoveries about the influence of DNA on health, a leading geneticist has predicted. As science learns more about the genetic roots of disease, couples will increasingly seek DNA tests on their embryos when starting a family, according to David Goldstein, of Duke University in North Carolina. By 2020, researchers will have discovered many more genetic variations that substantially raise the risk of common conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and psychiatric disorders, and it will be possible to detect these in embryos, he said. This will feed much wider interest in embryo screening, which is currently used by only a few dozen couples each year, and encourage fresh controversy over the ethics of designer babies. Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Goldstein said that his expectations about the speed at which genetics would advance had led him to make a ‘confident but uncomfortable prediction about the future of screening. ‘The identification of major risk factors for disease is bound to substantially increase interest in embryonic and other screening programmes, he said. ‘Society has largely already accepted this […]