LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday, a spokesman for University College London told CNN.



Genetic screening allows lab-fertilized embryos to be tested for genes likely to lead to later health problems.



Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer.



People with the gene are known to have a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast or ovarian cancer in their lifetimes.



British newspapers have dubbed the girl the "cancer-free" baby.



"This little girl will not face the specter of developing this genetic form of breast cancer or ovarian cancer in her adult life," said Paul Serhal, a consultant at University College London Hospital and Medical Director of the Assisted Conception Unit.



"The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations."



Yet not everyone is thrilled with the idea of testing embryos for genes that could cause health problems later in life, a process known as preimplanatation genetic diagnosis.



"This is not a cure for breast cancer," said Josephine Quintavalle, co-founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, which describes itself as group that focuses on ethical dilemmas related to reproduction.



What do you think about testing embryos for gene defects?



"This is simply a mechanism for eliminating the birth of anybody (prone to) the disease," she said. "It is basically a search-and-kill mechanism."



She opposes the procedure because embryos found to carry disease-causing genes often are discarded. She says that is essentially murder.



"They will be destroyed," she said. "They will never be allowed to live."



Doctors in Britain and elsewhere increasingly test embryos for genes that are certain to cause illnesses such as cystic fibrosis or Huntington's Disease.



What's different about the girl born Friday is that she is the first infant known to have been tested in Britain as an embryo for a gene that is merely likely -- not certain -- to cause disease.



In the United States, geneticists are free to test for any condition for which they can develop a probe -- and they're free to look for genes that are certain to cause diseases as well as genes that merely may pose problems later in life.



Quintavalle opposes any form of in-vitro fertilization where embryos are "killed," she said. But she is particularly troubled by the idea of screening an embryo for the BRCA-1 gene because carriers of the gene do not always develop the disease, and the disease is not always fatal.



"The message we are sending is: 'Better off dead than carrying (a gene linked to) breast cancer,'" she said. "We have gone very much down the proverbial slippery slope."



Peter Braude, one of the top British experts on the genetic testing of embryos, said he understands the ethical objections but focuses on the benefits.



"There has always been a vociferous group in opposition," he said. But "there are people who can benefit and I think they should be allowed to do so."



In fact, he argues that the procedure actually prevents abortions because it takes place on a three-day old embryo in a lab. Only embryos that lack the defective gene are implanted.



"I don't think you can equate eight cells in a dish to an embryo or a child," said Braude, head of the department of women's health at the King's College London School of Medicine.



For many couples, the alternative to testing an embryo is to conceive a child naturally and test the fetus weeks or months into a pregnancy. Some couples opt for an abortion when such testing reveals a defect.



Diagnosing an embryo genetically typically involves fertilizing an egg with a sperm in a lab, testing the
What is the baby screened for? What will prevent all embryos from being tested? What was screened to check for the gene? Can Cancer be detected in a person's genes? Who criticizes the screening? Where is the embryo screened?
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question: What is the baby screened for?, answer: a cancer gene | question: What will prevent all embryos from being tested?, answer: Genetic screening | question: What was screened to check for the gene?, answer: The first child in Britain | question: Can Cancer be detected in a person's genes?, answer: Genetic screening allows lab-fertilized embryos to | question: Who criticizes the screening?, answer: Josephine Quintavalle, | question: Where is the embryo screened?, answer: in a lab