All parents want a healthy baby, and for some people that carry genetic mutations, the decision to have children presents a challenge. Clinicians can now help those people ensure they don’t pass on a genetic disease to their children through a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which is explained in the video.
Sometimes, parents only find out they are carrying genetic risks when they have a child that is born with a rare disease. Others might know they are carriers because of affected family members, or they have the disease themselves.
The testing is not complicated. Clinics only need to build a genetic profile from the parents to create a test for the embryo. Then after a fertilized egg is made, a biopsy is done on cells that will become the placenta of that embryo if it's implanted. From there, the DNA of potential offspring can be checked for errors with 95 percent accuracy.