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Podcasts Take Two
Is Next-Generation Sequencing the future of IVF?
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Jul 10, 2013
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Is Next-Generation Sequencing the future of IVF?
The technique was developed at Oxford University and helps weed out chromosomal abnormalities and disease from embryos before they're implanted in the womb.
A baby boy named Liam.
A baby boy.
(
love_K_photo/Flickr Creative Commons
)

The technique was developed at Oxford University and helps weed out chromosomal abnormalities and disease from embryos before they're implanted in the womb.

A few weeks ago, a baby boy named Connor was born in Philadelphia using a new type of embryo screening technique called Next-Generation Sequencing.  The technique was developed at Oxford University and helps weed out chromosomal abnormalities and disease from embryos before they're implanted in the womb. 

Connor's case gives huge hope to parents trying to have a healthy child through in vitro fertilization, but it also raises questions about the ethics of embryonic screening. 

Here to guide us through them is Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University.