Question

Acording to case study 2, what is cause deaf children? Is it right to deliberately cause a child to be deaf and thereby limit her opportunity in life? If so, why? If not, why not?

558 PART 3I LIFE AND DEATH probably- those that will develop a fatal disease only in middle Is it right to deliberately cause a thereby limit her opportunities in Life not certainly-develop a serious disease? Or to age? Is it morally permissible to cause to exist persons why not? Should medical authorities or throughout their livest Give reasons for your answer. restrict the use ofIVF and PD Mark Henderson, "Designer Baby Fear over Heart Gene D to selecting embryos? If both prospective parents deafness, there is a high probability that the he be deaf So their failing to use IVE/PGD healthy embryos would almost guarantee Test. TimesOnline, is December 2oop, httpwww inesonline cou kol news/uk/sciencelarticl0014M9ece, ailure morally wrong? so, islas Is such a lecting impaired embryos equally wrong Ect os January 2008). Michael Le Page. "Designer Deafness. September 2006 CASE 2 Causing Deaf Children (New Scientist)-A few years ago, a lesbian couple CASE 3 in the U.S. sparked controversy when they chose a deaf sperm donor to ensure their hildren, like Cosmetic Embryo Selection them, would be deaf. Now it appears that some would-be parents are resorting to pre-implantation (London Telegraph)-Embryos are toh genetic diagnosis (PGD) to achieve the same thing. a cosmetic defect for the first time in a Brtisds by selecting and implanting embryos that will deDoctors have been given permission to baby free from a genetic disorder whi caused the child to have a severe squint velop into deaf children This comes from a survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC on how PGD is being used in the U.S The Bridge Centre family clinic, been licensed to treat a businessman and his Deep inside the report is this paragraph: "Some create the baby. Both the businessman and prospective parents have sought PGD to select an father suffer from the condition, which embryo for the presence of a particular disease or dis- eyes only to look downwards or sideways ability, such as deafness, in order that the child would Critics have said that the permissions share that characteristic with the parents. Three per step on the road to creating only perfect cent of IVF-PGD clinics report having provided PGD babies in the laboratory to couples who seek to use PGD in this manner." The licence was granted by the Human It is not clear how many, if any, children have been tion and Embryology Authority (HFEA) born after embryo selection for a disability, or which disabilities have been selected for. I asked Susannah Baruch, the lead author of the GPPC report, who told me that the team does not have any more details. Gedis Grudzinskas, who believes ruling marks a shift away from granting only for life-threatening conditions He said: "We will increasingly embryo screening for severe cosmeti So let's do the sums: Since the survey included 137 he added that he would seek to screen genetic factor at all that would cause a distress. lVF-PGD clinics, 3% means 4 couples at least, more if you assume some of the 200 clinics who did not re- spond to the survey have also provided this service. And since the success rate oflVF is roughly30%, even if each couple made only one attempt at least one child must have been born with a designer disability, when asked if he wouldsre tors like hair colour, he aspect to an individual case I merits. [Hair colour] can be a cause said: "If there is a most likely deafness, with the help of PGD.

Answer 1

The selection of genetic traits by the parents to enhance the children to be deaf is the cause of deafness in the child. Causing a child to be deaf is against the law. Selecting an offspring with serious genetic disorders is ethically unacceptable. Parents think that the embryo will get special attention and respect if it is genetically impaired. The fetus should be considered as a human being and it is not right to limit their opportunity with genetic disorders. Abortion is considered as making harm to the child and though is acceptable only under a certain medical condition. To avoid this, the implantation is screened earlier for prenatal genetic disorders. But misusing this, to get a deformed child is against ethics and should be stopped immediately through proper measures.