Biology Forum › Genetics › Whose embryo are used in PGD?
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- October 18, 2010 at 4:12 pm #13967
xEnOnnParticipantFor births from Preimplant Genetic Diagnosis and in vitro fertilisation, there will be several embryos being tested out to find out which is the healthy with normal chromosomes before putting back into the mother’s womb to continue fertlisation.
Do the embryos belong to the mother, or belong to someone else who donated their embryos?
If the embryos belong to the mother, supposing the father’s sperms fertilised an egg in the mother, there will only be one embryo for testing, isn’t it?If it the embryo was fertilised in vitro, and if the mother is infertile, does the egg come frmo someone else? If this is the case, is the child only genetically similar to his father, and not his mother since the egg wasn’t come from his mother?
- October 19, 2010 at 10:25 am #101901Julie5Participant
I think it depends, doesn’t it?
If the purpose of examining the embryos in vitro is to identify those with healthy genes or not, then I would think the doctors would obvoiusly need to know beforehand which parent is carrying the faulty gene (sometiems it’s both parents of course). With the same parents, and, say, one faulty gene being checked out, then if only one parent carries it, whether mother or father, then how many embryos might have the faulty gene will depend on whether the faulty gene is recessive or dominant.
With one donor parent (either egg or sperm) then, yes, any resulting baby will only be like one of the parents in the marriage, and the other half of their genetic inheritance will be from the donor. In practical terms, doctors try and select donors who are physically similar to the ‘receiving’ parent, eg, in height, colouring, etc etc, so the child will more easily pass for the biological child of the married couple raising it.
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