Help for couples with inheritable genetic disorders

While pre-implantation genetic screening is currently not allowed in Singapore, couples with known inheritable genetic disorders such as thalassaemia and haemophilia may use a procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to identify specific genetic abnormality in embryos, to prevent the disorders from being passed on to their child.

Embryo and fetal sexing is not allowed except on a case-by-case basis, with prior written approval given by the director of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health, said Dr Lim Min Yu of the National University Hospital. The PGD centre at NUH accepts genetic material for analysis from all IVF centres in Singapore that offer PGD. Since 2005, 129 cycles of PGD have been performed for more than 25 genetic diseases.