UK couples exploiting legal loophole to rank embryos based on IQ, height and health

UK couples undergoing IVF are exploiting a legal loophole to rank embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

The screening method, which scores embryos from their DNA, is not permitted at UK fertility clinics and critics have raised scientific and ethical objections, saying the approach is unproven.

But under data protection laws, patients can request their embryos’ raw genetic data and send it abroad for analysis to influence selection for traits linked to intelligence, height and health.

Dr Cristina Hickman, a senior embryologist and founder of Avenues fertility clinic in London, said rapid advances in embryo screening techniques and the recent launch of several US companies offering polygenic screening, which analyses multiple genes to predict traits, had left clinics facing “legal and ethical confusion.

“This opens a whole can of worms,” said Hickman, who raised the issue in a letter last month to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

One US company, Herasight, which charges couples US$50,000 (£37,000) to assess an unlimited number of embryos, confirmed it had already worked with couples undergoing IVF at clinics in the UK. There is no suggestion Herasight is in breach of any regulations.

In the UK, tests performed on embryos are legally restricted to a list of serious health conditions, such as Huntington’s, sickle cell disease or cystic fibrosis.

Clinics cannot perform polygenic screening for the purpose of embryo selection.

Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, said polygenic testing was unlawful for use in the UK.

“Licensed clinics in the UK are responsible for selecting embryos based on what is permitted in the HFE Act and therefore should not offer such testing and subsequent treatment,” he said.

“However, there is nothing to stop a UK-based couple seeking such testing, and indeed treatment, overseas, but a UK licensed clinic should not then make decisions on what embryo to put back using that information.”

Some have questioned whether the HFEA’s position is enforceable.

Hickman said the clinic would not generally block a couple’s request that a particular embryo is transferred, provided there was no conflict with medical safety.

“I would rather have polygenic testing allowed here and have the HFEA control how to do it ethically,” she said.

The European Society of Genetics has condemned the technique as “unproven and unethical”, and there are broader concerns about the potential for a stratified society where wealthier people pay to select preferred embryos.

Prof Angus Clarke, a clinical geneticist at Cardiff University, said: “These companies are dealing in murky science in an emotionally fraught context.”