Genethics and Eugenics: Good, Bad or Both?
A highly controversial topic of debate today circles around the idea of gene therapy and cloning. If you were a parent interested in adoption, what medical information would you want to know about your child? As an adoptive parent, would you want to know the potential diseases your child could inherit due to his or her genetic “mapping”? Would you want to know if your child was likely to develop cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, or any other of today’s leading diseases? What if the only way to learn this information was to pay large amounts of money to corporations who have patented these identifiable genes? If in fact you found your child was likely to develop a fatal disease, would you still want to adopt? If you answered no, you’re probably not alone. Most people would want a healthy, disease free child and in turn would reject their original candidate in search for a “better” baby. This gives rise to the question, at what point are you treating the baby as a product, similar to those bought on the shelf? Difficult question to answer. There are many possible problems associated with gene therapy include altering modern-day adoption processes
The protagonist of Gattaca, Vincent, struggled to overcome his predetermined subservient role in society. He was a child born out of love rather than genetic engineering, which wasn’t considered good. He was shorter and weaker than his genetically modified brother. He had a heart condition and myopia – all signs of an “In-valid”. As he narrated in the move, “I belonged to a new underclass. No longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science…For the genetically superior, success is easier to obtain,…(but) there was no gene for fate”. And so Vincent fought all odds to become a high-ranking “Valid” within Gattaca, an elite space program he dreamed of getting into. He defied society’s discriminatory rules for what was genetically preferable. His story heeds a warning for us all in the future – especially on the brink of our scientific and technological revolution. We can however, test for some genetic diseases within adults and children. But does this knowledge help or hinder us, especially in the realm of adoption? Many ethicists, philosophers and sociologists say no. By testing a child for a disease, at the request of parents, encourages the idea that children who have latent diseases are worth less than those who do not. If that’s the case, parents are likely to choose a different child – one without a hidden syndrome or disease. Some argue that “parents may well feel that they’re not equipped to deal, financially or emotionally, with such a devastating condition “ (118) as quoted in Richard Saltus’ article “DNA Tests Cast Shadow on Adoption; Biotech Conference Addresses Patients’ Rights” from Pimping the Flag reader. Opponents argue is any parent, adoptive or biological, equipped to handle such a challenge? But as testing for diseases becomes more available, it’s likely parents will demand to know the medical future of their children from adoption agencies – private or otherwise – and the medical community alike. In Brave New World, the “World State” is inhabited primarily by test tube babies w
Some topics in this essay:
Mother Nature,
Gattaca Vincent,
Human Genome,
Epsilons Epsilons,
Pimping Flag,
Parkinson’s Alzheimer’s,
Human Genome”,
,
Mother Nature’s,
Brave World,
gene therapy,
medical community,
gammas deltas epsilons,
medical community alike,
human person,
biotech companies,
betas gammas,
heart disease,
brave world,
gammas deltas,
betas gammas deltas,
treating human commodities,
prevent child,
child develop,
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Approximate Word count = 1452
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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