Pre- implantation Genetic diagnosis was a pioneering genetic test developed in the late 1980s to enable concerned parents to test for genetic disorders before they even got pregnant.
British researcher Alan Handyside and his colleague Robert Winston reported their new technique in 1989. it involved checking fertilized eggs for genetic disorders before they were implanted. Unaffected embryos, were then implanted through conventional in vitro fertilization techniques.
Before PGD was introduced, parents like to pass on genetic disorders to their children had few options to prevent this. they could remain childless,adopt get pregnant with the risk of having to terminate a pregnancy if genetic disorders were discovered PGD allowed them to pick only unaffected embryos.
The technique of PGD involves stimulating a womans ovaries with hormones to increase egg production.The egg are then fertilized by the father's sperm .After three to five day's, cells from the embryos are removed and tested for the particular genetic condition.
Critics of PGD claimed that screening out disorders in unethical. others claimed that the technique might increase the risk of other genetic complications,but a recent study showed that not to be the case.