Polygenic testing for IVF embryo selection in Singapore: proceed with caution

• Main Authors: Chin, Alexis Heng Boon, Lim, Lee Wei, Muhsin, Sayyed Mohamed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMJ Publishing Group L 2024
• Subjects: BF Psychology; BJ Ethics; BJ1298 Evolutionary and genetic ethics; QH426 Genetics; RA Public aspects of medicine
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/112237/2/112237_Polygenic%20testing%20for%20IVF%20embryo%20selection%20in%20Singapore_%20Proceed%20with%20caution%20-%20Journal%20of%20Medical%20Ethics%20blog.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/112237/; https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2024/05/16/polygenic-testing-for-ivf-embryo-selection-in-singapore-proceed-with-caution/

Singapore, like most affluent East Asian countries, has seen a drastic decline in total fertility rates (TFR) in recent years. In 2022 and 2023, the TFR hit new lows of 1.04 and 0.97 children per woman, respectively. This has dire implications for the country’s future economic growth, as well as national security due to the projected shortfall in conscripted military manpower. In typical Singaporean fashion to seek high-tech solutions to any outstanding problem, Government policymakers have increasingly leveraged new assisted reproductive technologies (ART) to overcome the country’s demographic challenges, with generous subsidies for IVF treatment at public hospitals. Nevertheless, in its eagerness to embrace new ART to boost its dismal birthrates, Singapore should beware that the unregulated and wanton misuse of some new technologies could instead backfire and result in the opposite effect of further lowering fertility rates.