Road to GATTACA: Selecting Human Embryos in Los Angeles
(CYOE)- Choose Your Own Embryo: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/science-and-tech/boy-or-girl-more-and-more-colorado-parents-are-chosing-their-babys-gender
If you haven't seen the movie GATTACA, I highly suggest you do so this weekend, and then read this article. It discusses sex selection in In-Vitro embryos, and the morality of such an advanced science.
Parents going through the process of fertility treatments in Los Angeles and Colorado can now choose the gender of their implanted embryos (assuming my gender before I am even born? Triggered! :P). This raises concerns about 'designer babies'- that children could be selected for height, eye color, IQ (a bit of a stretch, in my opinion) etc. While sex selection is a far cry from these more advanced criteria to select for, it comes with its own host of issues.
Gender selection is not prohibited in other developed countries, including Canada, the UK, Australia, and China. However- get this- in the United States it is completely unregulated. Why? Well my educated guess is drawn from years of observation and frustration: we are one of the most polarized nations on the planet. Half of us want women to choose what to do with their bodies, the other wish to regulate what they deem to be morally reprehensible. Even within the sides there are divisions- all babies should be born, but Universal Healthcare and paid maternity leave are drains on the State. So if we can't even agree, and are too busy arguing about those points and so many other straw men, how can we spare the time to argue about something that didn't even exist 10 years ago?
This controversy is similar on some ways to another- GMOs. While it is shown that genetically modified plants improve the overall health of species and crop yield without pesticides, many argue that such plants are fundimentally detrimental to our helath and that of the enviroment's.
Entangled in the gender controversy is a ray of light- healthier babies. Being able to help your child be the healthiest it can be before it is even born is something every parent should desire. You have diabetes in your family (as I do)? Your child doesn't have to spend their entire life managing an incurable condition.
We could potentially 'cure', or at least limit genetic diseases in our populations. This could be the beginning of a new era, like the dawn of the vaccine age and the irradication of polio, small pox, measles, and more.
We just need to decide if we as a human species are responsible enough to have such great power.
Maybe not.
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