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A biotechnology company has developed a new genetic screening tool allowing parents undergoing IVF to select embryos according to their predicted likelihood of developing depression, raising fresh concerns about the growing use of reproductive technology to select children based on desirable characteristics.
Herasight, a company specialising in genetic embryo testing, has published a pre-print study outlining its new predictor for major depressive disorder (MDD), which it says could help couples reduce the likelihood of their future children experiencing depression.
The technology uses a polygenic score, which examines numerous genetic variations associated with a particular condition, to estimate an embryo’s likelihood of developing depression later in life.
According to Herasight, couples selecting between five female embryos without a family history of depression could expect predicted lifetime risks ranging from 13 per cent for the lowest-scoring embryo to 27 per cent for the highest.
For male embryos, the corresponding estimates range from six to 14 per cent. The company says the difference becomes greater when more embryos are available for selection.
However, Herasight says that its predictor explains only around nine per cent of the variation in susceptibility to depression, meaning that most factors determining whether someone develops the condition remain outside its predictive capabilities.
“A polygenic score is not destiny,” the company stated, while maintaining that its technology could nevertheless help families undergoing IVF reduce the likelihood of depression in their children.
The researchers also suggested that embryos receiving lower depression risk scores tended to have genetic profiles associated with fewer anxiety symptoms, improved sleep, and better general health.
Although the company presents the technology as a means of reducing future suffering, its development raises significant ethical questions about the increasingly selective nature of IVF.
However bad it may be, screening was once exclusively for serious inherited disorders. Like many things, those who disregard life have moved the goalposts. Now, genetic testing is now being developed to assess complex environmentally caused characteristics and conditions supposedly influenced by genetic factors.
Such developments reinforce the false idea that some embryonic human lives are more desirable than others, with embryos judged according to their predicted physical or psychological characteristics.
SPUC’s CEO John Deighan has commented on the story, saying: “If they get an inch they take a mile. Those in the business of eugenically selecting who lives and who dies are now claiming that a science they admit is only 9 per cent effective should be used to disregard the smallest members of the human race. Technology like this should never come to British shores and SPUC will do all it can to stop it.
“Born or unborn, in seasons of depression or times of joy, human beings have inherent dignity. It is not man’s job to rank them.”
