Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a technique that is used for finding abnormalities or disorders in fertilized or unfertilized eggs (ovum). It is usually done in vitro fertilization for parents who suspect that they have a hereditary disease that is linked to genes. Many eggs are fertilized and the chromosomes are analyzed. Once an ideal egg is singled out, it is implanted in the mother's uterus. The rest of the fertilized eggs are discarded or used for testing. They will not live.There are also ways to analyze an ovum before it is fertilized in cases where maternal mutations are the only concern. (Sharpe)
Benefits:
- Less disabled people could ease the burden on our health system. A study showed that annual health care costs for a someone with down syndrome is over $34000 (Boulet). This study was done in 2004.
- If someone finds out that they are carrying a child with a sever disability, they are more likely to terminate the pregnancy. PGD can prevent these sort of abortions.
Drawbacks:
- It has been suggested that Bill Gates, Lewis Carroll, and Thomas Jefferson had/have Asperger Syndrome; a high functioning version of autism (Hensley). What if PGD prevents great thinkers from ever being born?
- Are we playing the hand of God?
PGD can also be a way of picking traits for our offspring: height, IQ, hair color, etc. Although research is still being done on this. I saw a scientist on NOVA talking about the complexity of these issues because there are hundreds of genes that contribute to these traits and environmental issues that we have no control of.
Citations used:
Boulet, Sheree, and Noelle-Angelique Molinari, Scott Grosse, Margaret Honein, Adlolfo Correa-Villasenor. “Health Care Expenditures for Infants and Young Children with Down Syndrome in a Privately Insured Population.” The Journal of Pediatrics. Aug. 2008. Vol. 153, Issue 2, Pages 241-246. Web. 16 July 2012.
Hensley, Samuel. “Fetal Genetic Testing is Unethical.” Biomedical Ethics. Ed. Viqi Wagner. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2008. 208-213. Print
Sharpe, Neil, and Ron Carter. Genetic Testing: Care, Consent, and Liability. New Jersey: Wiley-Liss, 2006. Print.
This issue reminds me of the movie "Gattaca". I watch "through the wormhole" on the science channel. There is a lot of advances in science that sound unbelievable: like being able to take a human brain and slice it up and scan the contents of it into a computer and scientist hooking up computer chips to mice. A lot of groundbreaking advances in science are in the early stages that will come to frutitaion in the next 100 years or so. As Michio Kaku, I made a post a long time ago with a video, described the different types of civilizations. I think humans are about to become a new type of civilization. I think that if these changes are allowed to continue that they will represent an evolution of humans. Humans are already evolving by more and more living in the the cloud: being on facebook, the internet, and constantly texting. I notice that when I am out and in groups of people I see a lot of people texting and on their smart phones and not interacting with other people. I often have to dodge people that are walking and texting.
ReplyDeleteI could see the state using this PGD to create the perfect subject. Maybe communism is actually close to being able to achieve its goal of basically making a new species that is not human. They will be able to change human nature. This is what their, and a lot of other groups that rail against free markets and groups that support gay rights and feminist and those that shout for social justice and etc, ultimate goal is whether they know it or not. They have an issue with the laws of nature and the nature of existence. Basically they want to be some type of god.
I don't believe that these advances will be able to continue though because of my belief in God.
I don't know enough about PDG to support it or not. I do think that throwing away fertilized eggs doesn't sound right. And I know that a lot of people that have advanced human civilization and human knowledge has asperger syndrome.
Learning about Frank Marshall Davis, I have recently had the epiphany: America has already been defeated by communism and we just can't see it. Just look at who the president is and the fact that he has 50% approval ratings and take a look at the state of American culture and what is taught in universities and what the average person believes. All that is left is a major crisis to complete the revolution. I might do a post of this. http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/cultural_marxism.html
This article points out among other things how gay rights are being used to destroy America.
"In 1959 President Eisenhower asked Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson to teach Nikita Khrushchev about American Agriculture.
Sec. Benson recalled the following conversation……
“Your grandchildren will live under communism.” Khrushchev said.
“On the contrary,” Secretary Benson replied, “My grandchildren will live in freedom as I hope that all people will.”
Khrushchev then retorted: “You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept Communism outright; but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have Communism. We won’t have to fight you; we’ll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands.”"
America has already taken the plunge
You make an interesting spin on the topic. Your opinion or observation of Communists trying to make a new human are not new to me. I think "Closing of the American Mind" illustrates this view well. Communists want us to lose our judgement of right and wrong. The idea that everyone should be "open" is really a way to make us closed minded to reality. I wouldn't say that PGD has any direct ties to Communism yet. Maybe in the future, when government has complete control, PGD will be used as a way to create healthy humans and ease the burden on the government controlled health care system. Research to control the physical and mental characteristics is still in its infancy but I think that the ability to do so is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher mentioned that some parents who have disabilities, such as dwarfism, are trying to make sure that their kids are also dwarfs. They want their children to fit in to their dwarf family.
One of those gray topics. Jeff's reference to Gattica is very apt. What a great movie. I believe, with no special knowledge but common sense, that life begins at conception, and therefore, throwing out fertilized eggs is killing a life (I can't call it murder, but I think if someone wanted to play Logician/Philosopher with me I'd be forced to say it is). However, at least on the surface, it seems that it would be a way to weed out genetic defects. Of course, this is already done throughout the 3rd world, in that severely retarded people just don't survive very long. Even in developed countries, I expect that the reproductive rate of severely retarded people is close to zero (ie ever so slightly lower than the reproductive rate of modern-day college graduates).
ReplyDeleteHowever, just like in the 3rd world, this technology will be used for far more than genetic defect elimination. Choosing sex? Choosing height, choosing other genetic traits...?
I list a lot of negatives here, but really, this is a very gray area to me, as far as what is right.
I was being a little cynical about communism using PGD. What kind of parents would want to make their kids dwarfs. I think designer babies like in Gattica are not that far off in the future. I don't see any thing wrong with making sure that your kids end up with the best traits possible. Of course it could be carried too far.
ReplyDeleteMaybe PGD is just a more advanced way to weed out the weaker amongst the human race. Whereas before they would have just died anyway like in the 3rd world.
The birth rates naturally go down as a nation progress more technologically. There is less need for a bunch of kids to work the farm and there is less need for labor in general. I read something that said that peak employment has already been reached in developed nations in part due to machines that make physical labor less necessary and that the labor force is transiting to a part-time work force. If this is the case there will be less need for large populations. Most college graduates move back home to their parents, 80%?, house with massive student loan debt that is delaying the establishments of households and they are not finding work. The total student debt is around 1 trillion now. I read somewhere that the economic downturn has decrease the national birthrate by around 3%. It is somewhat hard to start a family without a job. Unless of course you don't mind going on welfare and food stamps and being dependent of the government and being a leach on the productive society and hastening the collapse of our nation.