The UK’s controversial fertility regulator is again in the hot seat over its decision to allow clinics to destroy embryos with relatively minor genetic defects. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has published a list of 116 inherited conditions which fertility clinics can screen out without requiring special permission, says the London Times. These include conditions carried by successful people without great difficulty such as thalassaemia (tennis great Pete Sampras) and Marfan syndrome (Abraham Lincoln). It is considering adding another 24 conditions to the list.

If a condition is on the list, UK fertility clinics will be able to screen embryos for it and destroy it, if the parents ask them to do so.

The head of the HFEA, Professor Lisa Jardine, was indignant at how the news was reported. In a letter she complained that the London Times article was “inaccurate and misleading and could cause confusion and distress for… families”. She insisted that parents did not make such decisions lightly and that the embryos were “just three days old and made up of about eight cells”. ~ London Times, Jan 24