I wrote about this possibility last May and it now appears that the first guaranteed “breast cancer free” human being has been born in London.

This was not the result of any cure, mind you, but of Darwin’s lesser known discovery, the process of “un”natural selection. That is, the parents had multiple embryos created in a laboratory via IVF and only implanted those who did not test positive for the BRCA-1 gene which is linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

There is no word in the article as to what ultimately became of the other embryos who tested positive for maybe, one day, possibly being diagnosed with the cancers, but there are only two options. Either they remain frozen in a fertility clinic or they have been destroyed and tossed in the garbage – unfortunate casualties to this new process of evolution.

Again, it is certainly understandable, even desirable, to try to eradicate disease and prevent human suffering if we can, but this crosses the line of ethics and human dignity. Thomas Peters says it all:

Prune disease out all you want, but for heaven’s sake, we’re talking about pruning people out here!

Be sure to check Rebecca Taylor’s posts on the Ethics of Genetic Testing, part one and part two.

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Cancer Free Children?
Lives Not Worth Living, Take II
Another Embryo Screening Nightmare