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| Yes | 50% | 79 votes | Total: 158 votes | |
| No | 50% | 79 votes |
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Add to FavoritesIn my opinion, I would have no objection to allowing scientists to screen and manipulate the genetic material I donated in order to ensure healthy offspring. I believe that using science to aid families who are unable to conceive naturally is a justifiable way of applying genetic research. If we have the ability to save a child from a lifetime of hardship and pain due to a disease like cystic fibrosis, or sickle cell anemia, I see no reason genetic manipulation shouldn't be used. The turmoil of living with ailments like these can be avoided with modern medicinal technology and I feel, if possible, they should be.
The devastation of genetic diseases tears to the heart of the family unit. Having to be constantly in and out of hospitals, astronomical medical bills, and endless burdens of stress and anxiety can wreak havoc on the lives of family members. For example, my wife had a sister who was born with cystic fibrosis, a relatively common genetic disease that causes the mucus lining of the lungs to become hyperactive and flood them with fluid constantly. She died at the age of ten after a short and incredibly painful life. Granted, there are medications and treatments available, but cystic fibrosis remains a terminal illness. There is no cure and those treatments only aid a fraction in prolonging the life of the patient. Had her parents been given the opportunity to prevent the illness in there daughter, she would be alive and well, and my wife would still have a sister, but such technology wasn't available at the time.
Of course science can't prevent lifes troubles or accidents, but why not do what we can to make that life as safe and healthy as possible. The ability to overcome sterility and sickness on the genetic level is an incredible advancement in medicine and should be used to it's fullest potential. Saving patients, helping families grow; all theses things medicine was created to do. Genetic screening is just another way for science to ensure the highest possible quality of life for children and families and I see no reason why it shouldn't be taken full advantage of.
Learn more about this author, Jacob d'Armand.
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No
Genetic engineering and screening brings with it a vast arena of moral and social implications that unfortunately, were not well considered prior to development and use of the technology. Acquisition of the knowledge to alter and/or reproduce the genetic makeup of human beings present ethical issues that at times may overshadow any current and future benefits available in human society.
Most would agree that we should be allowed to utilize the scientific knowledge of genetic engineering and screening to reconstruct diseased organs, replace a lost limb or to provide new skin for a burn victim. These examples would rate low on the pole of social or moral implications that would generate ethical opposition. These procedures are performed to benefit a life that is already in existence and the majority would not hesitate to authorize the use of the technology if it benefited their own health or was utilized to save their life or that of a loved one. Here is where we begin to shift to a more complicated mode as we realize that the knowledge and use of genetic engineering and screening could change the face of the next generations in our family, literally as well as figuratively.
Scientists have been engineering genetics successfully since in vitro fertilization or test tube babies became a reality in 1978. Louise Brown was the first test tube baby born July 25, 1978 in Great Brittain. Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards were her attending physicians and credited with being the first to successfully perform the procedure. Louise Browns mother was diagnosed with a blocked fallopian tubes causing her infertility. In 1981 Elizabeth Jordan Carr was born becoming the first child born as the result of the procedure being performed in the United States by Dr. Howard Jones and Georgeanna Segers Jones in Norfolk, Virginia. Scientist manipulated human sperm and a human egg outside of the normal setting in the mother's womb and then implanted the cells into the uterus of the mother or a surrogate. This particular method has become an accepted alternative for individuals in the modern day society who are facing infertility issues. Due to the expense and the emotional dilemma that often ensues, in vitro, although an accepted alternative, is used a last step treatment in overcoming fertilization issues.
Have we seriously considered the possible scenarios that might arise from such a situation that we ourselves have created willfully? Imagine the explanation given to two children born 21 months apart from a third child, but considered a set of triplets because they came out of the same frozen batch that had been kept in long term storage. Was this a necessary plan of events or done simply because the technology is available?
Are we creating more problems in a world plagued with moral and ethical decline at the root of many problems that we face each day? Are we now looking to a future where we no longer accept imperfection and therefore move to find ways to eradicate it? Genetic engineering and screening is being mastered to the point that having the genetically perfect child can be an expectation in the future. Could these children be the next group facing the brunt of society's discriminatory acts due to their differences? Don't hesitate to consider that this could not be a possibility. Simply remember the history of our very own United States of America.
The scientists involved in engineering and screening of human cells should develop and operate under ethical principles and guidelines to create an acceptable standard for use in prevention and curing of existing diseases. The creation of Life has already been perfected and does not require further scientific analysis. Because we have the knowledge and power doesn't mean we have a right to exercise principles that could possibly change the foundational principles of a family. Are we emotionally prepared for the changes that would come in a society where a man could literally become a mother because he could have a clone of himself created. Who then is the real mother, or is the father both the father and the mother. Is Grandma then really Grandma, or is she considered Grandpa or are we just going to remain eternally confused as to the normal structure of a family.
Infertile couples have other options including adopting a child who is not blessed to have a home with a mother and father present. Although there is empathy for the involved couple, infertility is not a fatal disease. It can be survived and life can be resumed and lived to the fullest extent with children, whom they bond with through the heart to become as their own.
No, I would not choose to use genetic engineering and screening to combat sterility. I would choose the next best GOD GIVEN OPTION, not one designed by man.
Learn more about this author, Margrette Butler.
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