PGD: Prevent Giving Diseases
For ages, it has been a natural instinct for animals to want to procreate to pass on their genes to future generations. Likewise, humans also share this instinct, but recent technology has taken this a step further, sparking a great deal of controversy. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a reproductive technology which can be used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization (IVF) for the diagnosis of a genetic disease in embryos prior to implantation and pregnancy. I believe that this use of PGD should be permitted and that this technology will forever change the lives of those born with genetic diseases.
One major reason supporting the use of PGD for screening genetic diseases is that it gives people the opportunity to have a healthy child. PGD has been used for over 20 years since its introduction in the 1990s for the medical purpose of …show more content…
Just as the geneticist from Gattaca said, “this child is still you, simply the best of you. You could conceive naturally a thousand times and never get such a result.” Although I believe that the geneticist makes a good point, I should clarify that I only support the medical use of PGD and oppose the cosmetic, psychological, and physical genetic trait selection portrayed in Gattaca. The protagonist of the movie also makes a good point saying that “what began as a means to rid society of inheritable diseases has become a way to design your offspring.” This problem can easily be solved by establishing restrictions on the use preimplantation diagnosis to ban the screening of any gene which doesn’t concern the child’s health. At the end of the day, PGD is limited by the genes of the parents and the number of embryos the parents can actually choose from, so it is highly unlikely that we will conceive a world like that in Gattaca, full of athletic, muscular, talented, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Albert
For ages, it has been a natural instinct for animals to want to procreate to pass on their genes to future generations. Likewise, humans also share this instinct, but recent technology has taken this a step further, sparking a great deal of controversy. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a reproductive technology which can be used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization (IVF) for the diagnosis of a genetic disease in embryos prior to implantation and pregnancy. I believe that this use of PGD should be permitted and that this technology will forever change the lives of those born with genetic diseases.
One major reason supporting the use of PGD for screening genetic diseases is that it gives people the opportunity to have a healthy child. PGD has been used for over 20 years since its introduction in the 1990s for the medical purpose of …show more content…
Just as the geneticist from Gattaca said, “this child is still you, simply the best of you. You could conceive naturally a thousand times and never get such a result.” Although I believe that the geneticist makes a good point, I should clarify that I only support the medical use of PGD and oppose the cosmetic, psychological, and physical genetic trait selection portrayed in Gattaca. The protagonist of the movie also makes a good point saying that “what began as a means to rid society of inheritable diseases has become a way to design your offspring.” This problem can easily be solved by establishing restrictions on the use preimplantation diagnosis to ban the screening of any gene which doesn’t concern the child’s health. At the end of the day, PGD is limited by the genes of the parents and the number of embryos the parents can actually choose from, so it is highly unlikely that we will conceive a world like that in Gattaca, full of athletic, muscular, talented, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Albert