Welcome to SheKnows.com! You're welcome to browse, and if you'd like to participate on these boards, it's easy to sign up for a free membership! Just click the JOIN THIS BOARD link in the pink bar above to start. :-)
In theory, for people who are not automatically opposed to IVF due to religious beliefs, genetic testing of embryos sounds like a good idea: with it, doctors can try to ensure that couples who are carriers of devastating genetic conditions have babies who are not afflicted. But the technology is now being used by people who do have what have traditionally been considered "disabilities" to have children who also share the "disability". Thus a dwarf couple can be assured of having a dwarf child; a deaf couple can be assured of having a deaf child; etc.
...Creating made-to-order babies with genetic defects would seem to be an ethical minefield, but to some parents with disabilities — say, deafness or dwarfism — it just means making babies like them...
Three percent, or four clinics surveyed, said they have provided the costly, complicated procedure to help families create children with a disability...
But the survey also has led to a debate about the definition of “normal” and inspires a glimpse into deaf and dwarf cultures where many people do not consider themselves disabled.
Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism.
“You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me,” Reynolds said. “It's just unbelievably presumptuous and they're playing God.”..
I think that way, its cruel. If it was to avoid lethal diseases, with short or no life expectance, I would do it, but not cosmetic things... Like boy/girl or like here, deaf people having deaf kids... Naaah.
I think it is ok to select embryo's only for cases where the child will experience a reduced quality of life if born.
I think specifically having a child that shares your own disabilities is flat out wrong.
I remember watching a show about cochlear implants. This device can wipe out most deafness. However, there is a strong opposition against using them from the deaf community. There are deaf parents that refuse to have their children fitted with the implants, even though they could restore the child's hearing.
I think the problem here is that many people who are deaf or dwarfism do not consider it to be a disability. It seems an odd way to go about doing this though...I think what truly bothers me is that for me it would be like only picking the babies that have blond hair or blue eyes. I couldn't imagine doing this unless it was life threatening disease.
Embryonic selection -- yea or nay?
