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they unknowingly have for an even worse disease. There would have to be a blueprint for humans to insure good health, but that still wouldn't eliminate the random mutations that occur while the fetus develops or the unknown diseases that may develop with environmental changes. There are also certain genetic alterations that benefit the population that has them, but dooms them when a virus or bacterium comes into contact with them. It would not be possible to make a child better without, in some way, making them worse, genetically speaking.

As for the question of whether procreation is necessary for the greater good - the planet is overpopulated. The environment is in danger. Yet we as humans feel a need to continue our lines. In one way this is necessary to propagate genetic diversity. In another way, it leaves the thousands of children needing parents to grow up in orphanages. When adoption is an option it would seem unethical to go to such extreme medical lengths to have a child. So, for myself, I would not go to such great lengths to reproduce. I don't need a "perfect" child, nor do I need to suckle my own DNA.

I do not think it possible to guarantee a child free of genetic diseases. Even if it was, I wouldn't do it. For me, personally, it is an ethical line I can not see myself crossing. I would feel responsible for the child that did not get adopted, for the child that could possibly have an unknown condition, and for the waste of resources it took to create them.

Learn more about this author, Alicia M Prater PhD.
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