Genetic Selection
Genetic testing increasingly informs decisions about whether to continue a pregnancy (prenatal genetic testing) or which IVF embryo to implant (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis). Genetic selection techniques allow parents at risk of transmitting serious genetic conditions to have unaffected and genetically related children.
But what counts as “serious” is controversial, and our perceptions of which conditions should be prevented are socially constructed and change over time. Disability rights advocates point out that when prenatal screening identifies a fetus with Down syndrome, this often results in terminating the pregnancy, even though people with Down syndrome often thrive and live happily.
Driven by genetic testing companies, prenatal genetic screening has expanded rapidly to include a wide range of conditions. There are also new companies that “rank” IVF embryos according to their future risk of conditions like cancer, heart disease, or schizophrenia – a scientifically and ethically questionable practice.
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Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash
Every few weeks or so, Grete Fält-Hansen gets a call from a stranger asking a...
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In 2011, poet and writer George Estreich wrote about the impact of biotechnology on family life in his first book, ...
Rosemarie Garland-Thompson discusses "Biomedical Ethics and the Existential Threat to Persons with Disabilities" at the Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
George Estreich discusses his most recent book Fables and Futures, inspired by his daughter Laura. Estreich goes beyond the personal to describe the ways that genetic technologies affect society and the stories the promoters of such technologies tell about them. The event took place on May 1, 2019 at the San Francisco Public Library.
While embryo selection and gene editing technologies may offer great hope to couples looking to prevent hereditary disease or improve fertility. The debate over these technologies has reignited concerns that we are closer to slipping down the slope to designer babies than ever before. Are these fears warranted…or overblown?
The World Forum on Science and Democracy brings together “representatives of civil society engaged in the democratization of the production of scientific and technological knowledge.” On March 14, David King of Human Genetics Alert (UK) and Marcy Darnovsky spoke via video to its fifth annual meeting, held in Bahia, Brazil, about “The Threat of GM Babies.”