Creating Your Child, how far is too far? Options

[Heewee]

This is a topic that we have been recently discussing in my genetics class...


Recent technology has made it possible for those who can afford to do so to genetically select the gender of their baby:

Many parents desperately wish for that little girl (or boy) they always dreamed of. Now that it is scientifically possible to “sort” the X and Y chromosomes in sperm, The Genetics and IVF Institute is giving parents the power to choose the sex of their next baby. An FDA clinical trial of a sperm-sorting technology called MicroSort can determine the sex, with an 88 percent success rate for females, and 73 percent success for males.

The technology was originally created by the Department of Agriculture to use with livestock. According to a Newsweek article, over 1300 couples have used Microsort’s services since it began its clinical trial in 1995. The process can cost at least $2,500 each attempt, but it varies widely depending on what process is used (IVF, IUI) to achieve the pregnancy.

The ability to choose a baby’s gender opens a big can of moral and ethical worms, says the Newsweek article. “If couples can request a baby boy or girl, what’s next on the slippery slope of modern reproductive medicine? Eye color? Height? Intelligence? Could picking one gender over the other become the 21st century’s form of sex discrimination?”

Genetics is such a fast-changing science that the above article, written just under a year ago, is already outdated. Picking eye color, height, inteligence, and many other traits are available to parents to can afford to do so. This includes, the ability to do away with life-threatening diseases or even simple nuisances, such as wearing glasses. However, should people that have will have perfectly fine babies otherwise be allowed to genetically alter the alleles of their future babies just to change the eye color or hair color? My question to you guys is do you think that this is morally right and what are you reasons for or against your argument?

[antix10_kos]

I don't think that it is wrong or immoral to choose the sex of your child or to change your child in any way....let's face it, if given a choice between having a child with a disability and having a child without one, some potential parents choose not to have the child. That is considered a medically necessary abortion. Most often, the fetus in question has a rare, incurable, or untreatable disease or condition that poses a threat to its life or its mother's life. Now, some say that abortion, even these cases, is wrong. Others say it's not. Where to draw the line? Some parents could go through and choose NOT to have a child with a disease, say Down's syndrome, because they know that they cannot take care of it or are unwilling to try (selfish, yes. wrong, maybe. immoral, not in my opinion.)

When it comes to genetically modifying our future children, let's see for a moment what genetic modification could lead us to....if you knew that you had a 50/50 chance of producing a child with a rare disease that would effect the rest of their life in a negative way, would you a) choose to have the child on the basis of "every life is worth living", b) have the child, but have to spend the rest of your life caring for your child, and going into tremendous debt to care for it or even having to instutionalize your child, c) test and abort any fetuses that you or your partner are carrying that test positive for such disease, d) go to a genetic specialist and eliminate the genes carrying the disease from the embryo before it is even put into and fertilized inside you or your partner's womb, or e) adopt a child.

If you choose a, then you are taking a moral high road. Most likely, a will turn into b many years down the road when your child requires expensive round-the-clock care and medications and highly trained specialists to live. Plus the costs that you pay for everyday things like clothes, food, cars....c will leave you feeling dirty, can damage the party's body who has the abortions, can eliminate the chance of them being able to carry a child, and can turn into an expensive gamble without the pay-off (healthy child). D will also set you back financially, but will most likely result in the birth of a healthy child. E is a surefire way to insure that you get the child you want, right down to the color of the eyes and the sex...sure, it won't be biologically yours, but it will be a child and it will be a win-win situation. You get what you want (a healthy child who has the features you desire.) The child gets parents and a home. Adoption is safe, healthy, and moral.

I am not here to advocate the genetic pioneering of the human race. I am just presenting a view point that many people are shutting out before it even gets a toe in the door. Earlier, people were speaking of a child thinking that it is imperfect because its parents chose for it to be a girl when it was supposed to be a boy and they changed that through genetic modification...Well, obviously, the parents need to consider the ramifications of modifying their child....they need to sit through counseling before making the choice and agree on a course of action after having the child (if, how and when should they tell the child). Also, they need to check out other options, like adoption, fostering, or using donors (sprem, egg or surrogate mothers) before deciding that a gentically modified child is the road the want to travel down.

Let's not throw genetic modification out the window yet...for the human race to progress, all options need to be considered and researched...people need to see that just because humanity is fine now, doesn't mean it will be if an epidemic illness wipes out half the population. There are many ways in which genetic modification could take place. People don't think about it, but aren't vaccinations modifying your genetics to some degree? If not genetic modifications, then aren't vaccinations at least "unnatural" (biological modifications) because they are supposed to make you immune to diseases that you're not supposed to resist? Americans eat genetically modified food all of the time (unless you closely monitor what you eat and don't consume anything that's not organic.) Now, what makes it ok to make a chicken bigger than "nature intended" but not to change the sex of a child before it is even really "alive"?? There are so many blurry lines here.

That's why there needs to more research and less narrow-mindedness towards exploring and experimenting on humans. More knowledge and trial-and-error will clear up those blurry lines and help us to discover our limitations. Simply shutting the flow of knowledge off will only make us stagnate.

As for the whole allele debate, yes, it would have to be present. However, I'm sure that if genetic modification were to become common, research would be performed and custom genes could probably be made and used to obtain custom features, like "anime hair" or albino features....but these things could be harmful and that's why genetic modification needs to be researched and experiments done to answer questions and lay out some concrete facts for everyone.