In this day
and age invasive procedures and modern technologies, also known as scientific
progress, have helped cure diseases, treat medical anomalies, and furthered
life expectancies. But, along with all these benefits, comes a great deal of
responsibility and complication. Recently, researchers have developed methods
by which they are able to determine the genome of a fetus by obtaining only a
blood sample from the mother and saliva sample from the father. The process is
deemed as “impractical and not affordable enough for now”, but in 3-5 years may
be commonly used and inexpensive. Now,
although this procedure is a revolutionary discovery, the results may render
ethical and moral problems for potential parents of the fetus.
DNA
sequencing results can be used to highlight whether diseases or genetic
abnormalities are present in a fetus. I think that this knowledge is
advantageous, but incredibly harmful at the same time. The DNA results will
allow potential parents to be aware if their child will be born with any
defects and allow them to prepare for the process of dealing with whatever lies
ahead (benefit) or the results may enable the potential parents to want to
abort the baby because they don’t want to deal with a defective fetus
(advantage). I understand that research is used to further knowledge, but maybe
some things are just meant to be unknown. I know that this type of research
will allow people to change their fates, but it will also increase the abortion
rate. Perhaps many would argue aborting a fetus because it has a Mendelian
disorder (i.e. tay sachs disease, marfan syndrome, etc) is superficial and that
the parents of that fetus are selfish because they do not want to bring
themselves to take care of a child who is destined to a life filled with
obstacles. But the other side would argue that it is a very difficult job to
take care of a child with such medical disorders and that they would rather not
deal with a life of having to take care of a 24/7 dependent child (which is
understandable).
This
is an incredibly sensitive issue and I applaud those who are able to remain
objective when trying to make a decision based on the knowledge that is handed
to them by a simple test. No life is inconsequential, but a fetus that does not
have the ability to sustain life independently after exiting the womb may not
be seen as necessary for some people, thus they might choose to abort the
fetus. Aborting fetuses that suffer from disorders says something about
humanity; it doesn’t show that humans necessarily lack empathy, but it does say
that the decisions of humans have become significantly altered by the knowledge
obtained from a doctor’s results.
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