Embryos produced using IVF can be screened for genetic defects before implantation into the womb, a German high court ruled on Tuesday. Leipzig’s Federal Supreme Court ruled in favour of a Berlin gynaecologist who carried out pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for three couples and implanted only the healthy embryos. The other embryos, which possessed hereditary defects, were left to die off.

The doctor, 47, unidentified by the court, brought the case to court himself in 2006 to clarify the legal situation. He was acquitted by a Berlin regional court, but the city’s state prosecutor appealed.

Judge Clemens Basdorf told German news agency DAPD that IVF embryo screening should be legal "if there is a danger of grave genetic defects for the desired children of the patients." ~ AP, Jul 7