Ask Our Expert - Ensuring that a Child Won't Have Sickle Cell

October 11, 2008

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Ask Dr. Jana Ensuring that a Child Won't Have Sickle Cell

QUESTION


Dear Dr. Jana, How can two people with the sickle cell trait (AS genotype) prevent having a child with the disease? Where can a medical process be done and how much would it cost? — Ebele in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

ANSWER	February 28, 2001


Dear Ebele, The medical process you mention is described in an article in the May 12, 1999, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This article describes the first successful attempt to use a genetic procedure to enable a couple to have a child unaffected with sickle cell disease. Using in vitro fertilization and a newly developed procedure, genetic testing of fertilized embryos was performed. Only those embryos that did not have the abnormal sickle cell genes were implanted. The result was the birth of twins who did not have the disease. Because the procedure used is both new and controversial, information about how much it would cost or where else it is currently being done is not readily available. I would suggest contacting the center cited in the JAMA article directly. — by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P.

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