Dr. John Waterstone:

It makes provision for PGD, but there is an omission to which Dr. Wingfield and I have drawn attention in the various reports in which we have been involved. Provision is made for PGD more or less along the lines of what obtains in the UK, but obviously without any declaration of an intention to fund it. There is a subsection called pre-implantation genetical screening, PGS, which involves genetic analysis of embryos. The draft legislation has made no provision for it, which is a glaring omission. In PGS, embryos are analysed genetically, but it is not for a specific condition that people know they are at risk of, for example, cystic fibrosis. Rather, it is for sporadic chromosome abnormalities that anyone can have and cannot be predicted. Many human embryos are chromosomally abnormal. We call the ones that are aneuploidy. In general, these embryos do not implant at all or, if they do, they tend to end up in miscarriages. The tip of the iceberg that we are all aware of is Down's syndrome, which is an aneuploidy that proceeds all the way through pregnancy without miscarrying and resulting in a viable baby. PGS is done to detect aneuploidy, and it is becoming part of IVF provision. There is considerable debate about whether it should be furthered and whether it is an unnecessary add-on treatment. There is significant dispute between Europe and America about the merits of PGS, but it is taking place already. We carry it out in our unit to a limited extent. It is also being carried out in Dublin. PGS is a reality in Ireland already and it needs to be catered for in the legislation, but it is not at the moment. I believe that to be just an oversight on the part of those who drafted the legislation.