Recalling: the DPI requires that the couple made an in vitro fertilization, outside the womb. When the embryo has eight cells is possible to remove a single cell and verify whether or not she has the mutation. If it is not present, there is no risk and that embryos can be implanted in the uterus.

No risk, again, for this form of hereditary cancer. That is, instead of a risk of about 50% to 80%, the risk that this girl will ever have breast cancer will be the same in the general population, those 10%.

The question is: is worth to undergo this procedure with all the technical implications, ethical and emotional knowing that the risk, although 5 to 8 times lower, still?

Ethical or unethical

Only those who passed the drama of seeing the mother, grandmother, aunts and other close relatives may die early assess the suffering that this entails.

The decision to use DPI to prevent the transmission of a mutation like this should not be easy. Firstly, because the risk remains. And second, because we have hope, and many, that in the near future be able to cure the cancer. But hopes are not guaranteed anything.

Today we can not promise not estimate when the cancer can be cured. Submit to the DPI and select an embryo free from a mutation that causes cancer or other diseases still incurable, even when approved by the Ethics Committee is a very personal decision. And you, dear reader, using a bet or IPR in this case the destination?

As the IPR is performed

It is held on the third day of embryonic development in the laboratory, after fertilization of ova. That day, the embryo must take six to eight cells. One or two of them are removed for examination (embryo biopsy).