The Future of PGD in Canada
Share your thoughts on Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). Assuming that there are no boundaries as to what PGD can detect, to what extent do you think PGD should be permitted? Should there be laws in Canada controlling the use of PGD?
Your comments should be a minimum of 150 words and must be posted before 2 pm, Friday, December 22, 2006.
posted by Dr. C at 6:17 AM
10 Comments:
Pre Implantation Genetic Diagnosis is something that is troublesome to people now, and will become even more as we move towards the future.
My personal believe is that PIGD is something very beneficial for humans in one very specific way; it can wipe out terrible mental, and physical, disabilities that effect millions of people. I am not saying that people with Huntington's Disease aren't good or real people, but they suffer in ways that we cannot control, and the fact is that we can control whether a child will or will not have the disease.
I do not however think that PIGD should be used to control intellect, or eye color, or height. I think that is silly to control the way one's child looks, but I do not think that it is silly to conrol whether or not one's child will have a mental or physical deformity/disease.
I think that if the rules and regulation were kept, and if the government of Canada controlled all PIGD done, then it would be a great thing for our country, and for our world. I don’t think people with mental issues and deformities are not good, but they are however people who could be more “normal” in their lifestyle and how they feel physically and mentally.
DAVID SIMCHA
I do agree with simcha, with the fact that PGD shouldn´t be used to control the child´s looks.
Because that would be choosing your child´s future which i think it would be a really unfair decision.
On the other side i think that it´s an amazing experiment, to help people, quoting simcha, "people that are effected with this disease suffer in ways that we can´t control", and if we could we can help and save millions of people.
I do stand by the fact that PGD shouldn´t be "legal" ti control the child´s looks.
Joanna
I think that in some cases PGD is a great thing. If all carriers of certain diseases all have children with PGD, then certain diseases will be destroyed (unless there is a mutation). All in all, why not have a haelthy baby as opposed to a sick one if given the choice. On the flipside, i think people should leave looks and other non-health related areas of a child to nature. As long as it is not life threatening, why not just leave somethings to chance? In the future if PGD becomes a regular thing and many babies are born better looking and more athletic, I would feel really bad for the "regular" babies who have to live life being looked down upon as lesser children. PGD can be a great thing when it comes to the destruction of disease and the well being of babies, but when it could needlessly improve looks and strength and other things like that, then I feel it is messing with nature too much and creating more reasons to look down on certain people.
I am adamantly supportive of Pre-implementation Genetic Diagnosis (PIGD); I feel that despite some problematic features, PIGD is overall, an excellent innovation.
The ability to prevent children from being born with horrible diseases, which PIGD ably provides to humanity, is something that should be celebrated, not condemned. The many lives spared from great pain make an extremely compelling case for the usage of PIGD, at least in my mind. Also, the joy of parents and others who will revel in the children’s happy lives also are a tremendous of PIGD.
Yes, the use of PIGD to select all sorts of traits for a child, as some have suggested it will be used, is quite worrying – however, I suggest that governments can choose to create bounds and limits on the use of this technology. Perhaps, PIGD can only be used in certain cases (i.e. hereditary diseases), thus preventing its (mis)use in other scenarios.
In short, properly regulated PIGD is a phenomenal way to ethically use biotechnology to ensure a happy life for every child who is born using this technology.
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ.
P.S. Pick a better name for your blog, Samm! :)
Although many people and groups believe that PGD is wrong and will change many things in our society I think it can be very beneficial under the right laws. PGD can be a very beneficial thing for our world because it can wipe out some or all genetic diseases and make many lives better. If a family used PGD and eliminated the chance that their child will get the genetic disease they are carriers for their lives will be a lot easier when the child is born and down the road because they will not have to go to treatments and it will also save them all the medical bills and emotional struggle they might have. I do not think it should be legal for PGD to be used to determine the hair/eye color, sex, height, or any other physical characteristics of the child but strictly to eliminate genetic diseases. If the government implied the right laws and regulated the process of PGD I think many people will be able to benefit from it.
I think that PIGD is a terrible idea because it is sending a horrible message to everyone. When people are given the option to choose all the detail of their unborn child, it is saying that we cannot stand for imperfection. People will start with just eliminating genetic diseases, but that will turn into choosing eye colour, hair colour, intelligence etc. we are saying that we do not accept anyone who has a disability or is sub-par in any way. We have become such an intolerant society that only wants beautiful people and PIGD will only enforce that. PIGD would eliminate the diversity and difference in people. If everyone was born through PIGD than we would all be the same, everyone would be beautiful, smart, athletic, healthy and unnatural. There is no way to put a limit of what people can use PIGD for, so there is no way to tell if people will be using it just to test for genetic diseases. Therefore there may never be an accepted use of this new technology because people will always demand to test for more. No one will ever be content with the information they find out and will keep wanting to fix more which will ruin what PIGD is about.
the previous post was from me, not tali.
Danit
I think that PGD CAN be used for a good force in the world to come. When PGD is "properly"/"morally" used it can be a good process to have in the future. IF we use PGD for the process involving selecting babies with certain mutated genes or carrying diseases, that is the "morally right" way to using PGD. If we do use PGD like this, as I stated in class and as Senor Coodon said in his response, this can eliminate the disease that is being carried by the adult for his future children, and the rest of there family tree. So if it were to be done in that sense, eventually it could wipe out some genetically carried diseases.
When PGD is used for sex selection and certain trait selection, this is "morally wrong". When doing this, we are playing God in a sense, which is very wrong which will have an affect on religion and society.
My plan to help eliminate using PGD the "wrong" way and use it the "right" way is to have the government control it, and to put certain knowledge limitations on it. We must Raise the price so people who cannot afford it and are using it for the proper use can have access to it and no money will be pushed under the table for "extra" results because the government is only paying for the knowledge of whether or not the baby is potentially carrying that particular. The people who cannot afford it have to go the government to plead there case to get the grant. This is my plan for the future of PGD. I do not think we should get rid of it entirely, just put limitations on it.
I think PGD is something that in the future will be taken for granted.
I think that in the future people will not only use this for checking if you child will have certain diseases but also for genetic traits.
Personally I don’t think this should be used on anyone to change your genetic traits, however I think anyone should be allowed to check if their child is going to come out with some disease, that we as humans are not able to fix, or to handle. This will give the parent the perspective about what they should do because no one wants to being a child into the world if they know they wont have a good or “normal” life.
People should see PGD as a privilege and not take advantage of it, because they should think about before their time, when people weren’t able to do that and they have accepted what their child was like.
By changing a child’s looks, or anything else might not only hurt the kid but also will make the parent think they are getting this perfect child and could get disappointed, their personality will change and match the environment they live in. their personality isn’t controlled by PGD.
I think PGD should be allowed to diagnose health related issues, but should not be allowed for any other reason. I believe people should accept who they are, and a parent should love their child no matter what.
Well, I pretty much agree with everyone else. I think PIGD can be a very beneficial thing, if used correctly. I wouldn't want to see such useful technology be used to create a society like that portrayed in Gattaca. I think those are the kind of conserns that lead some people to be against PIGD, I don't think they realize that that fate can be avoided. I hope in the future if doing PIGD becomes a common thing, the goverment will implement some plans to avoid this type of discrimination, and avoid it at such great scale. I think they should implement a law that dictates that PIGD can only be used to avoid gentetic diseases, and this law can be justified under the belief that all people should be born equaly (that is to prevent rich people from choosing the sex of the baby, eye colour and such).
Albert
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