Offering a new lease on life
An expert on correcting genetic imperfections, Huang Hefeng provides patients with hereditary diseases the chance to start a family without passing on problematic genes, Zhou Wenting reports in Shanghai.
Huang Hefeng used to joke that her job was to help people "make people". But after nearly 30 years of progress in assisted reproductive technology, she has now moved from helping couples to conceive to a role that sees her purge genes carrying hereditary diseases from family lines.
In the past, most patients with genetic diseases used to abandon all hope of ever starting a family for fear of passing on problematic genes to their child. But now, using the "third-generation test-tube baby technique" to assess and diagnose problems in the genetic makeup of embryos, Huang is literally offering a new lease of life to these patients.
