The first baby conceived by means of an artificial insemination procedure that includes checking embryos for genetic disorders has been born. Lucas Neagu was at high risk of inheriting a rare form of muscular dystrophy that would have left him with weak muscles, making walking and everyday tasks difficult.But this ground-breaking technique, pioneered by doctors at the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health, in London, has allowed Lucas to be born free of the disease.The procedure, karyomapping, is able to detect more than 200 disorders in a single test whereas its predecessors required tests calibrated for each of the diseases.Lucas' mother Carmen, 26, inherited Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease from her father, who suffered from the illness all his life.It causes weakness and wasting of the muscles below the knees.Though she has only mild symptoms, she was worried that her children would inherit the disease. Specialists warned that there was a 50% chance she would pass it on."The risk was too high," she said. "My dad had severe symptoms and it really got him down."I was told I could try to get pregnant and have a test at 16 weeks, but that was not an option because it would have been too hard to have an abortion at that stage."Then we were told about a clinic in London which could screen for the disease and we felt we had to try."Doctors took DNA swabs from Carmen , her mother and Lucas's father, Gabriel.They then screened the gene sequences at 300000 points on the chromosomes to locate the defective genes responsible for the abnormality.Carmen was artificially inseminated with Gabriel's sperm. The embryos were biopsied to find out which were free of the disease.The procedure started in December 2013 and Lucas was born a year later. He is now three months old, happy and healthy." I have peace of mind now that he is going to be ok," Carmen said.The couple had two embryos frozen and are planning for another child within five years. ..