In preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), embryos are screened for genetic conditions before implantation in the uterus to enable parents at high risk of having a child with a serious genetic disease or a pregnancy ending in miscarriage or stillbirth due to genetic defects to improve their chances of having healthy children. PGD had been regarded as illegal in Germany under the country’s Embryo Protection Act until 6 July 2010, when the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that PGD is not explicitly prohibited in the Act and is thus legal. As the legislative body, the German Bundestag was asked to draft a bill that would provide a legal framework regulating the use of PGD.

Institutions

• National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) (for the Union of German Academies of Sciences)
• German Academy of Science and Engineering acatech

Spokespersons of the Working Group

• Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Zenner ML (Member of the Leopoldina Presidium, Spokesperson of the Standing Committee Science and Ethics of the Leopoldina)
  Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
• Prof. Dr. Philipp U. Heitz ML (Member of the Leopoldina Presidium, Spokesperson of the Standing Committee Science and Ethics of the Leopoldina)
  Universität Zürich

Members of the Working Group

Reproduction Biology, -Medicine and Gynecology

• Prof. em. Dr. Dr. Henning M. Beier ML
  Universitätsklinikum  RWTH Aachen
• Prof. Dr. Klaus Diedrich ML
  Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein Lübeck
• Prof. Dr. em. Hermann Hepp ML
  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Human Genetics

• Prof. Dr. Claus R. Bartram ML
  Universität Heidelberg
• Prof. Dr. Peter Propping ML (Member of the Presidium of the Leopoldina)
  Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Developmental Biology and General Genetics

• Prof. Dr. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard ML (Member of the Standing Committee Science and Ethics of the Leopoldina)
  Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie Tübingen
• Prof. Dr. Anna M. Wobus ML
  Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung IPK, Gatersleben

Philosophy and Ethics

• Prof. Dr. Otfried Höffe ML
  Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
• Prof. Dr. Bettina Schöne-Seifert ML
  Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Jurisprudence

• Prof. Dr. Jochen Taupitz ML
  Universität Mannheim
• Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Wolfrum ML
  Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Heidelberg

ML = Member of the Leopoldina