"In Europe, divergent values are quite explicitly shaping different [preimplantation genetic diagnosis] policies. This spring, England approved the use of preimplantation diagnosis for the breast and colon cancer risk genes. In Italy, the procedure has been effectively banned for any condition.

In the United States, where the technology is not regulated, decisions about when it is appropriate are left largely to fertility specialists and their patients.

...The interest in embryo testing is being driven largely by a greater knowledge of genetics among cancer patients and their family members. In the last five years, nearly 10 times as many Americans have been tested for the breast-cancer-risk genes as in the previous five, according to Myriad, surpassing a total of 100,000 since the test was made available in 1996."

"But some people who believe life begins with conception think [preimplantation genetic diagnosis] is as unethical as abortion and perhaps more pernicious because it is psychologically less burdensome. Unused embryos may be frozen indefinitely, skirting one moral issue, but at a cost of several hundred dollars a year. Reproductive Genetics Institute, a leading P.G.D. lab in Chicago...said about half the embryos containing the unwanted genetic profile were discarded and half donated to research.

...Already, thousands of couples who are undergoing in vitro fertilization to overcome infertility use P.G.D. to weed out embryos that harbor common chromosomal disorders that would otherwise be screened for by amniocentesis. Fertility experts say they may be the first to take advantage of the procedure for a range of other genetic conditions.

...'It's like children are admitted to a family only if they pass the test,' said Denise Toeckes, 32, a teacher who tested positive for a BRCA mutation. 'It's like, "If you have a gene, we don't want you; if you have the potential to develop cancer, you can't be in our family."' "

Progressive commentators have often assured worried Americans that parental divorce will hurt children less and less as divorce loses its stigma and as parents and therapists become more adept at dealing with it.  Such assurance looks very dubious, however, in light of research findings recently published in Demography by a research team from the London School of Economics.

To be sure, the British scholars acknowledge the widely held view that "as alternative family structures have become more widely accepted, divorce has been accompanied by less stigma, and any negative effects of community disapproval should have lessened over time."  The British researchers likewise cite the view that because of "increasing levels of information on the effects of divorce," parents who divorce now may be better able to "mitigate the effects of separation on their children" than were parents who divorced in the past.  However, when the researchers set about comparing the effects of parental divorce on children born in 1958 with the effects of parental divorce on children born in 1970, they uncover no evidence that family disruption has lost any of its sting - in the short run or the long run - for the children involved. 

Indeed, when the LSE researchers examine the effect of parental divorce on children's anxiety scores, they conclude that it makes little difference whether they are looking at the children born in 1958 or the children born in 1970.  The statistical analysis for both groups shows that, compared to peers from intact families, "children who experienced a parental divorce are significantly more likely to have a high anxiety score at age 11 or 10" with "the odds ratios for parental divorce [being] similar across samples." 

What is more, when the researchers shift their focus to behavioral problems, they reach the provocative conclusion that the apparent effects of parental divorce are actually worse for children born in 1970 than for children born in 1958.  "Contrary to the hypothesis that the associations [between parental divorce and negative child outcomes] might decline over time," the researchers write, "these [findings] show that, if anything, there is possible evidence of an emerging relationship - at least when it comes to aggressive or anxious behavior." 

When the researchers examine the long-term effects of parental divorce, they again uncover evidence indicating that children born in 1970 have suffered just as much harm as a consequence of such divorce as have children born in 1958.  Looking at adult attainment of academic or vocational qualifications, adult receipt of welfare benefits, and adult indications of psychological malaise, the LSE team finds that parental divorce is "positively and significantly linked" to all three types of negative outcomes for both groups of adult children.  For all three outcomes, the researchers find that the statistical odds ratios linked to parental divorce are "remarkably similar." 

In their conclusion, the authors of the new study stress that "despite rapid changes in the frequency and acceptability of parental divorce beginning in the 1970s, it is striking that the parameters linking family disruption to child and adult outcomes are so similar in magnitude across these two samples." 

In other words, the increasing frequency of parental divorce has not diminished the distress experienced by the children affected.  It has simply - and tragically - multiplied the number of children experiencing that distress.