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New Technology allows us to produce offspring or savior
siblings
Pre-implantation Genetic
Diagnosis and its impact
on our future!
Lester Nicome
Have you ever wondered
about the possibility of having
offspring that are free from all
genetic abnormalities? What
if they can also have all the
possible features that you can
envisage? A tall, fair skin baby with blue eyes; a boy or
girl, all up to you. How about
being able to predetermine the
intelligence quotient (IQ) level of the off spring? This may
sound like something from a
Hollywood movie, but with
the rapid advance in technolog, science has developed
a procedure called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) which promises the
possibility of realizing such
dreams. One of the main features of the new technology,
is the ability to produce an
offspring or savior sibling as
it is called, to aid an existing
individual who may be suffering with some genetic ali-
ment. Most individuals would
readily agree that this new
Technology is very beneficial
as it provides some measure
of relief and hope for suffering individuals. The other half
of the coin presents a more
perplexing view. Are we
ready and equipped for a super intelligent society? How
would this new breed relate
and interact with the older
generation who were not gifted with this super intelligence? Would this new technology bring with it a new
racial war where super intelligent
super beautiful people feel superior
to the existing society? While all this
sounds noble and fantastic and tends
to give scientist an almost “God like”
characteristic, the impact that this
new and developing procedure can
have on our future needs to be looked
at in a very dispassionate way, and
much discussion is required if it is to
become relevant and practical. The
decisions we make about how we use
the new found ability to decide what
our offspring's’ look like and how
they function in society will determine the direction in which we head.
http://www.thebioethicsproject.org/essays/the designer-baby-technology-does-preimplantationgenetic-diagnosis-cause-discrimination-against-theThe picture depicts possible genetically modified images of newborn babies, branded with barcodes to suggest commercialism. It is argued that scientists have developed this groundbreaking procedure, which could stop a host of genetical diseases
plagued by thousands, but at what/who's cost? This procedure has been criticized for many reasons. The techniques used to
carry out this procedure is unethical to say the least. Creating embryonic babies, human life, souls in a lab and subjecting
them to unnatural processes, possibly for sale is craziness at its highest. On the other hand taking a holistic view of the subject, this is all part of the natural trend of human progression. Despite all the negatives of humanity today, our continual
i n n o v a t io n
ha s
ma d e
h u ma n
c o n d it io n s
b e tt er fo r s o me ,
mo r e t ha n e v er
b efo r e .
Written By :Arielle Agard ( Winner Of Writing Competition)
WISE-N-WELL