After test tube babies, it is the turn of genetically 'made to order' offspring. In a first for France, the genes of a baby were modified to make him free of a potentially fatal liver disease. The baby named Valentin, was born six weeks premature in a hospital near Paris.
The parents of the baby boy were carriers of defective genes which could have caused a major liver defect in the baby. However, by a process called In-Vitro fertilisation, the mother's eggs were fertilised by the father's sperm outside the mother's body. The resulting embryos were then tested to detect the abnormality by a procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and a healthy one was implanted in her womb.
This procedure is already used in countries like the United States, UK and Belgium, but has been authorised in France for just over an year. This gives a chance to parents carrying the genes for a debilitating disability to try for a healthy baby.
November 15, 2000 (PTI)
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