Pros And Cons Of Using PGD Technology

Improved Essays
Just because it is possible, should we do it?
Imagine that one day you find out that your parents have used PGD technology to select specific characteristics for you to have as you grow up. How would you feel about it? I would feel that my whole life has been a lie. I would not know if the things I like are because of who I really am, or because I have been artificially modified. I can understand that parents want the best for their children, but there are limits. The desire to control life and its outcomes go against the essence of life, and ultimately, against individual freedom and responsible parenting. The simple fact that this technology will become possible in the future to those who want to determine specific aspects of their child’s personality, is scary and unpromising. I would clearly draw a line between the use of this technology for screening embryos that have serious inherited diseases, and its use for nonmedical and frivolous reasons. Selecting the personal characteristics of an unborn human being seems unnatural and unethical to me.
…show more content…
When combined with in vitro fertilization (IVF) parents can make sure that only selected embryos are transferred to the uterus. PGD was originally designed to prevent serious medical diseases; but most recently, this technology has been developed to screen for other nonmedical reasons which include gender selection, physical attributes or personality traits. Some of them are already possible and, some others are likely to be possible in the near future. It is truly frightening to imagine a world where babies are customized by their parents, and children have no choice about their given characteristics and

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    This could be dangerous because of the many possible lives that are being ruined by the mistakes made by genetic engineers and technology. Secondly, the parent may have a choice with certain parts of the child, however there are many things that do not rest in the parents hands. For example certain genes that are selected by parents will control other aspects of the future child’s body. For example, a parent could end up with an intelligent child with red hair, however, she may develop a hostile or mean personality. The practice is similar to gambling, where the parent choose a certain gene…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Choosing the sex of a child is no longer a hypothetical issue. New genetic engineering technologies have rendered the ability to use non-medical sex selection, choosing between a boy and girl, through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. There have been many debates about non-medical sex selection, questioning whether or not it is an ethical procedure. Non-medical sex selection should not be an option within pre-implantation genetic diagnosis because it is an unnecessary decision that is not beneficial to either the parents or the child and can lead to negative consequences both within the home and throughout society.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The medical community is largely cheering advances in non­invasive fetal DNA tests, fetal genome mapping and chromosomal microarrays that scour fetal DNA. But some opponents of abortion see this new technology as a threat, and they 're responding by restricting when women can terminate a pregnancy. Advocates for the disabled are also concerned, fearing that women may end pregnancies based on misinformation or myths” (Szabo). By looking at the articles, it is evident that hundreds of newborns are currently being killed with an abundance more to come, stemming from the new technological advances of genetic testing. Not only that, but research suggests that women are having abortions solely based on the fact that their child may be born with…

    • 1060 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A genetic research advancement enables genetic counselors to obtain information on the specific genes of an embryo. Currently, a test can reveal whether several life-threatening diseases or disabilities, such as Tay-Sachs or Autism, are prevalent in an embryo. As research continues to progress, scientists perceive it will be possible to test for non-disease genes such as intelligence, violence, or memory capability. Therefore, as many couples utilize in vitro fertilization (IVF) to reproduce, they are given the opportunity to test disease and non-disease genes to abort or select an embryo based on the results. Is it ethically legitimate to genetically enhance or alter an embryo based on genetic testing of disease and/or non-disease genes?…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Choosing the traits for your baby was a thing of the future, but now it’s a reality. Designer babies, also known as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD is where you can choose the genetic “makeup” of your child. Doing so has many benefits, but also many MANY cons. Designer babies are not something literally constructed and would ruin the society of today. Designer babies or PGD is where eggs are taken and fertilized through vitro fertilization.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Designer babies are believed to be the future of modern biotechnology and medicine. The world has seen a few successful cases, but the welfare of these children is still governed by the country’s regulatory authorities. While this novel invention provides several advantages to parents for selecting specific traits, it has also received wide criticism for the same purpose. One of the reasons for the development of PGD was to prevent genetic and inherited diseases.…

    • 2065 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Firstly, there could be parents that could not afford to be able to choose their child’s traits. Those parents as well as their non-perfect children would be looked down on because they might still carry some sort of disease or have a disability (Caplan). Not to mention that there could be less women, at least in other countries where men are highly favored, like India or China. Plus, designer babies cause discrimination towards the disabled. “PGD itself as a “social establishment of a procedure, the explicit goal of which is to prevent the existence of sick and disabled people” does discriminate against the disabled”…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Ethics of Prenatal Genetic Modification Genetic engineering is a method of altering the genetic makeup of an organism with the intention of improving the organism. The technology that is used for this modification is still in its early stages, but was intended to be used in the manufacturing of insulin, various hormones, and antibodies, as well as disease research and gene therapy. This technology is beginning to encroach into reproduction, where it has the potential to be used to prevent certain sex-linked diseases and screen for embryos that are predisposed to certain genetic conditions. Once this technology is integrated into reproductive processes, a door will be opened for parents to have “designer babies,” which is a term that describes…

    • 1939 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology has advanced so far that it has created new opportunities for parents to genetically modify their offspring. This new technology allows parents to choose their desired traits such as the offspring’s gender, eye color, handedness, addictive behavior, nutritional background and athleticism. Many people refer to this new technology as designer babies. This name is termed by many journalists because its purpose is to give more control to parents over their child’s genes before they are conceived. Designer babies have created a new debate on whether or not it is ethically right to design a baby.…

    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the idea of creating an artificial child may seem immoral, there are more advantages to designer babies than just eliminating disabilities. In addition to creating a fairer environment for all children, this procedure could also make them live longer with the discarding of disease causing genes. Furthermore, the newfound experience and data collected from this procedure could also help geneticists progress faster in their research in genetics. The operation could be also viewed as ethically accepted since some women take prenatal pills during pregnancy to ensure…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Designer Baby

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A designer baby is a term for a human being who before birth underwent a biological screening process in a lab to determine that its chromosomes did not contain any genetic abnormalities and/or to evaluate for desirable biological phenotypes (BBC – Horizon, 2005). Moreover, the process is initiated when the mother undergoes fertility treatment to increase the eggs available for extraction which are then fertilized by the sperm of the father or elected suitor (BBC – Horizon, 2005). Subsequently, a few embryos derived from the aforementioned fertilization process are selected via a screening process and then are implanted back into the mother’s womb were they gestate until birth (BBC – Horizon, 2005). The pressing question from the required…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Scientist has found ways to genetically alter human gametes, zygotes, or embryos to lower a child’s risk of developing many disorders and illnesses. Even being able to dictate gender, hair and eye color, height. There are developed qualities on innate qualities, no one actually knows how to “make an intelligent person”. (The pros and cons of “Designer babies ‘’, 2013) Since this technology has been develop some people use this process through these changing times genetic selection of traits has become a huge moral ethic debate.…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this day and age, it is possible to prevent deadly diseases that a person is predisposed to before they are even born. This process is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a screening test used to determine if genetic or chromosomal abnormalities are present in an embryo created through in-vitro fertilization. In-vitro fertilization literally means fertilization “in glass,” but in actuality, simply occurs in laboratory receptacles. This combined process, developed in the early 1990s, originally intended to help families at high risks for sex-linked diseases or with a history of miscarriages.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The goal of gene editing is to make modifications to specific areas of the genome. A topic that has been argued on in a big debate held by moderator John Donavan an author and correspondent for ABC News. Genetic engineering should not be accepted because of the many risks it can cause, the amount of money it would take to make these changes, and also it would not be fair to the parents who cannot afford it. Therefore, I do not believe it should be accepted in the United States or nowhere around the world.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Human culture has a constant drive for perfection in all aspects of life. People are determined to achieve the best jobs, the best homes and the best form of “living”. Even if all those things are well achieved, humans are driven to strive for more. There seems to be no point where this controlling behavior will get to a stopping point. Recently, technological advancements in medical sciences have allowed potential parents to genetically “play” with preferred traits in an unborn baby.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays