I am old to this world……..my mind is overloaded with so much information being thrown at me. I do not know how our children can process all this……..
Dr. Jim Denison
American startup company Heliospect Genomics is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ, marketing their services at up to $50,000. While scientists warn that such genetic screenings are currently inconsistent and not technologically reliable, the story raises the question: If you could use genetic testing to select a baby based on IQ or other traits, would you?
Should you?
“Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis” is currently being used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization (IVF) to reduce the risk of passing on inherited conditions. Embryos created through IVF are tested for single-gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, or polycystic kidney disease. The healthiest embryos are implanted in the mother; the others are frozen or discarded.
This practice raises enormous ethical issues of its own, especially for those of us who believe life begins at conception. However, in my work as an ethics consultant with a major healthcare system, I have also been anticipating the day when such testing could be used to select embryos based on IQ and a variety of other attributes. Such eugenic practices would clearly be attractive to many who could afford them.
This issue points to an even more fundamental cultural question that affects every one of us, regardless of our age or station in life.
“We no longer worship anything”
There was a day when couples could know little about their babies prior to birth. Ultrasound scanners were not widely available until the 1970s; the same was true for prenatal screening for Down syndrome.
Prior to this time, sex-selective abortions were obviously not possible; today, millions of babies (usually females) have been aborted on the basis of their gender. Down syndrome babies were not detectable in utero and thus not aborted; today, 90 percent of women whose unborn babies are diagnosed with Down choose to abort them.
We could have a similar discussion of nearly any ethical issue of our time. For example: More Here
