Essay about Genetic Testing and Reproductive Freedom

To many people today, the journey to personhood begins in the process of In Vitro Fertilization –IVF. The dramatic advances in this field has led to the ability for genetic alterations associated with diseases and other inherited characteristics. These two independent fields of genetic testing and IVF each present some issues that are technically, legally and ethnically complicated. Genetic testing allows for parents to choose which embryos to implant in a woman based on the genetic tests results. This has brought up a lot of new scientific, social and ethical predicaments. Many people have began to consider not just the implications of these new genetic diagnostic tool but whether core ethical and practical concerns surrounding IVF are†¦show more content†¦The major question is whether the people with physical impairments disabled or are they just different from the rest. This statement captures the current debate in the field of deafness- is deafness a disability or is it a condition of linguistic minority status? Impairment becomes an in-ability due to how the society is constructed but it is not a disability. A major distinction between deafness and disability is that at least among culturally deaf people, deafness is not considered a disability. In this regard deaf people may welcome the birth of a deaf child (Devlieger, Rusch Pfeiffer 2003). It has been an assumption of many people that, at the very least, we may use our reproductive freedom to avoid bringing into existence disabled people, giving the lower quality of life they can be expected to have. Some maintain that we have a duty to avoid bearing disabled people into existence. On this view, any moral right to reproduction freedom does not include a right to knowingly or negligently to bring into existence a seriously diseased or disabled person. Those with these views are often taken aback by the claim, advanced by disability rights advocate, that it is morally impermissible to avoid bringing disabled people into existence. Even more controversial than the claim that it is wrong to aim at the avoidance of disabled people are attempts to aim at having a child with a disability. However, this must also be weighed against the children’s interests inShow MoreRelated Eugenics: Breeding and Improving Human Genetics Essay1704 Words   |  7 PagesI support the gu idelines outlined by Kitcher for the use of genetic information because of their responsible and ethical nature. I believe that future generations will benefit as a direct consequence of these guidelines. I shall begin by defining eugenics as the study of human genetics to improve inherited characteristics of the human race by the means of controlled selective breeding. 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