Sunday, September 03, 2006

Mere Comments: Baby's Got Her New Genes On

My wife and I are expecting our fourth child in March. Friends will often ask, "How much longer till you can find out if it is a boy or a girl?" They know I'm hoping for my first daughter, while my wife would like a fourth boy. They know we'll be thrilled either way. No one has yet asked me, "How much longer till you find out if he'll have heart disease or pancreatic cancer or Alzheimer's disease?" These days will be soon upon us as genetic technology is giving us the ability to turn every child into a Mister Potato-Head toy, assemble the parts to get the desired outcome.

The September 3 New York Times glances at the ethical implications of the new technology of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a process where through in vitro fertilization (IVF) parents are able "to detect a predisposition to cancers that may or may not develop later in life, and are often treatable if they do." Embryos that do show a predisposition to such disorders may be "discarded," and the couple tries again. the rest

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