test to detect genetic and chromosomal abnormalities in embryos ready for trial

[Seravee]

A club foot or cleft palate or lip sucks to have, I'm sure. I believe both can be fixed easily. But the one side of your logic suggests they should keep these features and be unique. I know I wouldn't want to keep them, and I wouldn't my kid to have to deal with them.

It's an extremely confusing subject for me. It is something I do not understand fully and therefore am afraid of it in a sense. Human nature I guess. I dont like stuff like that because it has the potentional to be misused and abused.

I am going to have to read up more on this.

[ping]

I can understand the need for something like this but how far will it go? Will this apply to dwarfism and the like?

[Fantasy Chaser]

Wow. Hitler card comes into play already...

Susanna, please explain what's wrong about wanting to make sure your child will be healthy? Do you oppose all medicine, or only that which can prevent suffering?

Seravee, your first sentence sounds like it's right out of a eugenicists biography. Something must be 'wrong with you' if your child has a problem? You sound like you're two steps from declaring that people shouldn't be allowed to breed if they don't measure up.

She didn't say that. I believe she's saying that she suspects that this knowledge of defects before birth is either intended or will be used as a basis for selective abortion. My money says the same.

So why fix birth defects after birth? Is that disgusting?

In addition, being able to tell what's up genetically is invaluable information, so parents can prepare. Yes, of course, some unethical or immoral behavior may arise using this technology. It does with all kinds of technology -- and there's possibly a pro-life question with using "spare" embryos -- I dunno enough about what that means but I'm wary.

In the meantime, conceptually, there is nothing wrong and everything right with healing your children before they're born; and that's a potential result of this technology too.

I suspect it isn't about healing, but discriminating who gets to be born.

[Susanna]

She didn't say that. I believe she's saying that she suspects that this knowledge of defects before birth is either intended or will be used as a basis for selective abortion. My money says the same.


I suspect it isn't about healing, but discriminating who gets to be born.

[ping]

I suspect it isn't about healing, but discriminating who gets to be born.

It is certainly possible something like that could happen but you'll likely see laws passed to prevent genetic discrimination.

[Fantasy Chaser]

It is certainly possible something like that could happen but you'll likely see laws passed to prevent genetic discrimination.

I'm not confident of that. People are already using abortion to get rid of Downs Syndrome babies. I think the law will get more left, not right.

[Sobe]

What conditions are bad enough to justify termination? mermaid syndrome? A heart outside the body? Harlequin fetus? Few would argue that it is not merciful to end these lives before birth. Down's Syndrome, severe deformation- how do you draw the line?

[LakeCharlesGuy]

This scares me for some reason. I don't know, I just don't feel comfortable knowing this kind of power/technology will be under the disposal of the masses, seeing how poorly most people these days conduct themselves.

[Fantasy Chaser]

What conditions are bad enough to justify termination? mermaid syndrome? A heart outside the body? Harlequin fetus? Few would argue that it is not merciful to end these lives before birth. Down's Syndrome, severe deformation- how do you draw the line?

Draw it on the side of life. Doesn't mean you have to support every hopeless case, but you don't cross the rubicon into actively terminating life.

[Susanna]

Talk to the parents of a little girl struggling for survival in our area. I'm sure the advice of many doctors would have been "abort!" Check out her story here: A little girl named Svana