Giving Families a Chance: Non-Invasive Genetic Testing

• Author: Courtney Ashlynn Goldston
• Pages: 31-32

SUMMER 2021 31

art: law & practice

By Courtney Ashlynn Goldston

When prospec tive parents embark on their

surrogacy journ ey, their ultimate goal is

to come home with a happy, healt hy

baby. As technology ha s advanced,

various methods have b ecome available

to eager families who wis h to increase the chance of achieving

their dream. Before st arting the process of forming em bryos,

intended parent s may be asked if they want to perform

pre-implant ation genetic screening on their emb ryos. Genetic

testing is a power ful tool that allows intended parent s to

determine if there are any p otential issues with an embryo

before it is transfer red to the surrogate.

What Is Genetic Testing?

Pre-Implant ation Genetic Screen (PGS or PGT-A) i s a preven-

tative measure use d to screen embryos for chromos omal

abnormalities. Chromosom es determine everything from

hair color to what diseas es a person may be susceptible to.

An average fertilized eg g has twenty-three pairs of chro mo-

somes—for ty-six in total—r eceived from the sperm and

Giving Families a Chance:

Non-Invasive Genetic Testing

ovum that form the embr yo. These include two sex chromo -

somes (XY fo r males and XX for females). These h ealthy

embryos are calle d euploid. PGS aims to search for aneuploidy

or the presence of an ab normal number of chromosomes in a

cell or structural ab normalities with those chromosom es.

Chromosomal abno rmalities are common causes of bir th

defects that c an affect the brain and other par ts of the body.

An example of aneuplo idy includes Trisomy-21, also known

as Down Syndrome, wh ere there are three copies of chromo-

some 21 rather than the ty pical pair. A chromosome may

have a structural abn ormality, including a missing portio n of

a chromosome, a dup lication, or a transfer to another

chromosome. These genetically abnormal embryos are

unlikely to survive. An ane uploid embryo most likely will not

implant and thus will not re sult in pregnancy, but it can also

cause a miscarria ge later on in the pregnancy, and in rare

cases, it can l ead to a genetic disorder in the child. PGS

increases the chanc e of pregnancy and lowers the rate of

miscarriage by ens uring that only genetically healthy

embryos are trans ferred into the surrogate.

Published in Family Advocate, Volume 44, Number 1, Summer 2021. © 2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.