Question

If a couple who are pursuing IVF is aware that they are at a high risk for producing a child that will suffer from an untreatable and life-threatening disease, such as Tay-Sachs or Huntington’s Disease, do the parents have an ethical duty to have preimplantation genetic diagnosis of their embryos and then not to implant those that test positive for the disease? Why or Why not? Remember to justify your response using the ethical theories or principles that you considered in your analysis.

Answer 1

Pre- implantation genetic diagnosis is genetic profiling of embryos prior to implantation. It's main advantage is that it avoids selective abortion screening embryos with Pad and transferring only the ones that are chromosomally normal can increase IVF success rates by 234. PUD has raised ethical issues, although this approach could reduce reliance on fetal deselection during pregnany. PGD is done through blastomere or blastocyst biopsy - By relying on the result of one cell from the multi- cell embryo, PUD operates under the assumption that this cell is representative of the remainder of the embryo. This may not be the case as an the incidence of mosainism is often relatively high On occasion, Pud may result in a a false negative result leading to the acceptance of an abnormal embryo, or in a false positive result leading to to the deselection of a normal embryo.

PhD allows discoimination against those with intersex traits such traits discrimination fails to recognize that many people with intersex trait led full and happy lives. PAD combined with HLA (Human leukocyte antigend matching allows couples to select for embryos that are unaffected with a genetic disease in hopes of saving an existing , affected child. The saviour sibling" would conceivably donate life-saving tissue that is compatible to his/her brother or sister. Some ethicists argue that the saviour siblings created from this procedure would be treated as commodities. Another argument against selecting for savior siblings is that it leads to genetically engineered "designer babies". This argument prompts a discussion between the moral distinction of enhancing traits and preventing disease a

Currently in the United States, no formal degulation or guideline exists. The ethical decisions regaading this procedure is in the discretion of health care providers and their pare patients . In contrast, the UK's use of PhD is regulated by the Human fertilization and Embryology Act (HFFA), which requires clinics performing I this technique to attain a linlese and follow strict coiteria.