
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994                   TAG: 9401230181
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BREAKTHROUGHS

Last week, scientists at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk announced that advanced genetic screening techniques were used to ensure a baby will be born without the deadly Tay-Sachs disease. In the process, a defective fertilized egg was discarded. Was that murder?

O Scottish scientists revealed this month that they can take the eggs from

the ovaries of aborted fetuses, fertilize them and implant them in the wombs of infertile women. But will children be scarred by the thought of their "biological mother" being aborted?

A 59-year-old woman gave birth in December after artificial fertilization in Rome. The French government has already announced it will act to prohibit such pregnancies. Should there be an age limit for having babies?

Researchers at George Washington University Medical Center announced in October that they had cloned a human embryo in an effort to find new ways to help infertile women. But will clones be sold? Will others be frozen for replacement parts?

Throughout the year, scientists located genes at the rate of one a day, including those for Huntington's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. Cures are hoped for. But when blood tests show people are likely to acquire costly diseases, will insurance companies deny coverage?

The Human Genome Project in Bethesda, Md. continued to draw attention for progressing in its effort to create a detailed road map of the body's 100,000 genes by the year 2005. Will the knowledge be used to create made-to-order humans? Is that playing God?

by CNB