The Federal Court of Justice ruled July 6 that doctors in Germany can screen frozen embryos and either implant them in a womb or destroy them without restrictions, according to the Associated Press (AP).

A Berlin gynecologist brought the lawsuit himself to obtain a ruling on whether pre-implantation genetic diagnosis was legal under German law. Despite an Embryo Protection Law that is in effect in the country, the court decided that doctors performing in vitro fertilization can test the embryos for genetic defects and then discard them if any irregularities are found, the AP reported.

Some in Germany are concerned that the ruling could lead to testing for gender, eye color, and other traits, and the subsequent destruction of human embryos in order to create "designer babies." Others expressed the fear that it devalues human life.

"The Embryo Protection Law sought to prevent exactly that which the Federal Court of Justice has now chosen to allow: Namely the selection of 'good' and the correlative destruction of 'bad' embryos," according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "The selection of embryos involves much more than merely increasing the success rate of artificially implanted pregnancies or that of preventing the later abortion of a presumably handicapped fetus. Embryo screening means certain life forms are not allowed to exist at all. And that opens the door wide open to judgments about which life forms have value, rather than just determining their viability."