1. Concerns about the use of polygenic embryo screening for psychiatric and cognitive traits.
- Author
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Lencz T, Sabatello M, Docherty A, Peterson RE, Soda T, Austin J, Bierut L, Crepaz-Keay D, Curtis D, Degenhardt F, Huckins L, Lazaro-Munoz G, Mattheisen M, Meiser B, Peay H, Rietschel M, Walss-Bass C, and Davis LK
- Subjects
- Cognition, Humans, Phenotype, Risk Factors, Mental Disorders genetics, Multifactorial Inheritance genetics
- Abstract
Private companies have begun offering services to allow parents undergoing in-vitro fertilisation to screen embryos for genetic risk of complex diseases, including psychiatric disorders. This procedure, called polygenic embryo screening, raises several difficult scientific and ethical issues, as discussed in this Personal View. Polygenic embryo screening depends on the statistical properties of polygenic risk scores, which are complex and not well studied in the context of this proposed clinical application. The clinical, social, and ethical implications of polygenic embryo screening have barely been discussed among relevant stakeholders. To our knowledge, the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics is the first professional biomedical organisation to issue a statement regarding polygenic embryo screening. For the reasons discussed in this Personal View, the Society urges caution and calls for additional research and oversight on the use of polygenic embryo screening., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests JA has received consulting fees from 23andme. TS has received consulting fees from Baylor College of Medicine. LB is listed as an inventor on Issued US Patent 8,080,371,“Markers for Addiction”. All authors were members of the Ethics Committee of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics at the time of writing., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2022
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