Blog Post 12

                I think having the option to design your child to your liking can be extremely damaging. I don’t think any person should have that kind of power especially in a society like the one we live in today that is heavily dependent upon physical appearances. By screening for things such as genetic disorders, sex or other features, parents would be able to decide on the fate of their child. This could create new stigmas and discrimination that are attached to genetic defects. It would further instill prejudices that are present today against people with genetic defects and would favor those who would be considered “normal”. The effects of genetically designing a baby ripple out from just the immediate family and can affect any progress that has been made in reducing the stigma’s attached to developmental defects.

Another topic that is an area of debate is genetic modification for medical purposes. This case is discussed in the Christianity article. The premise of this practice is that parents who have a child who has some sort of illness opt to have another baby and genetically modify it so the child being born can be a donor for whatever needs the older child has. I personally don’t agree with this. If you look at it from the perspective of the child being born, this could cause a lot of psychological damage. The child would know that he or she was only brought into the world to aid the sick child. There is also a lack of consent with situations like these. The child is essentially an experiment from the moment he or she is born and doesn’t have any way of removing him or herself from it. I understand that parents who have a child who is ill would want to do everything they could in their power to help their child, but where should one draw the line? Isn’t it morally impermissible to bring a child into the world for reasons other than just to expand the family?