Crystal Liu

Crystal Liu

Postgraduate Award

Media Profile

“The last fifty years have seen rapid advances in genetic screening technologies. The Victorian, South Australian, and Western Australian state governments have successfully used legislation to regulate assisted reproductive technology. However in the United States, self regulation has been largely ineffective and the nation stands to gain tremendous knowledge from observing what countries, like Australia, have done to respond to ethical implications of assisted reproductive technologies (ART).”

Crystal Liu is one of twenty Americans granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Award in 2005. Crystal is an Arts graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, earning degrees in an interesting combination of majors – Molecular and Cell Biology and Political Science. During her studies, Crystal was recognised as a Haas Scholar and accepted into the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program and as an intern for the Scientific Freedom, Responsibility & Law Program at AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science Interns)

In Australia, Crystal will be working in conjunction with the Infertility Treatment Authority (ITA), the statutory body established by the Victorian Parliament to regulate ART in Victoria. Working closely with Louise Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of ITA, Crystal will look specifically at the regulation of access to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a technique that allows for genetic screening to occur at the embryo level. In addition to her research with the ITA, she will also pursue a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Ethics at the University of Melbourne.

“While PGD can be used to screen against embryos that carry debilitating diseases such as cystic fibrosis, it can in theory also be used to screen for any characteristic that has a genetic component” Crystal states.

“Currently in the U.S. the two most controversial uses of PGD are non-medicinal sex selection and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue typing. There is currently no official body within the U.S. with adequate enforcement powers to regulate the acceptable and unacceptable uses of PGD technology. The U.S. has been hesitant to pass legislation to oversee how the technology can be used.”

Using PGD to perform sex selection for non-medical reasons has been banned in the state of Victoria, while the Victorian ITA Research Committee reviews applications for expanded and novel uses of PGD (such as HLA tissue typing). By analysing the rationale behind these decisions as well as observing the process by which the Victorian ITA Research Committee reviews applications, Crystal aims to create a research paper that will assist the U.S. Government in creating new PGD legislation from Australia’s example.