Gene Selection

A woman is to give birth this week to the first baby in Britain which has been selected to be free of a gene which greatly increases the risk of breast cancer, experts said.

The 27-year-old woman, who wants to remain anonymous, decided to take the step because several of her husband's close female relatives suffered from breast cancer.

The baby grew from an embryo screened to make sure it did not contain the faulty BRCA 1 gene, which would have given it a 50 to 80 percent change of developing breast cancer.

British woman to deliver baby screened for breast cancer