An ethical assessment of preimplantation diagnosis compared with conventional prenatal diagnosis

Preimplantation diagnosis (PID) is a recently developed technique in the area of prenatal genetic testing. It combines in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the cytogenetic analysis of the preimplantation embryo. Its primary purpose is to serve couples who are carriers of monogenetic disorders and who therefore have an increased risk for conceiving a diseased or disabled child. In this thesis I am going to assess this method in comparison with conventional prenatal diagnosis (PND) after amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. First, I will examine the question of whether the human embryo and fetus can be regarded as persons. Within this context I will also address the problem of the use of embryos in research. Second, I will compare and analyze the moral and ethical differences between selective abortion following PND and the discard of the embryo after PID. The discussion is going to focus on the following issues: (1) the analysis of the change from the in vivo (PND) to the in vitro (PID) environment and the associated implications, and (2) the discussion of arguments favoring PID over PND. I will conclude that PID and PND are both acceptable procedures, depending on the particular situation and previous experiences of the couple who is a carrier of a genetic disease, and who wants to make use of either of these techniques in order to prevent passing on the disease to the offspring.