Human Responsibility

       Recognizing that we as the human race have created and discovered so may different things that are instrumental to our health and well-being now, we continue to pillage on in the dark to solve many more mysteries and to chart the diminishing unknown. The field of genetics and its link to diseases and possible cures is such an uncharted territory and to launch into a lengthy project of experimentation would cost much time and money. The unanswered questions about whether scientists should be able to pinpoint the genes of various diseases are controversial. Should scientists inform parents if their fetus has certain traits that are linked to a certain disease that does not have a cure yet? Is it their choice? Who should fund the research, if anyone, and how should it be monitored? Should people be informed it there is still no antidote? Where will the experimentation stop/where are the boundaries? 
         In response to at least some of these question which have no real right or wrong answer, will we, as a nation allow the diagnosis of a doctor control what we do with our children? All too often, the answer is overwhelmingly yes. "It could increase abortions for reasons that have little to do with medical issues and more to do with parental preferences for traits in children." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/health/tests-of-parents-are-used-to-map-genes-of-a-fetus.html?src=me&ref=general
Are we that shallow that we only care for things the way we want them? How will the world turnout if we control the future now with our decisions of how we would like our children to turn out? Is there such thing as de-diversification? Who would regulate the proceedings when/if they come out and are not to expensive for an average person to have?
           At the same time that knowledge without being able to do anything about it can be very painful. Imagine knowing that your future son/daughter is going to have Marfan Syndrome, and then also acknowledge that there is no "cure" for this genetic mutation. This is not far from what parents today have had to deal with and those who have had it before the disease was found. We didn't die, we survived, we lived. Before there was a polio vaccine, people were treated and then overjoyed when Jonas Salk created the vaccination. But even then, it was not yet mass produced and available to the public. It was a luxury that some parents could not afford. So is this going to be a parallel situation, where those who are rich will simply abort the "problem" children before they are born while the lower class has to "suffer" through loving them and getting them the care they need. This is not the only possible course of action, some say that ignorance is bliss and it can be argued that the needy are what makes the world go 'round. They teach us patience, selflessness and kindness; caring for someone who may not be able to do it themselves is a rite that every human being should shoulder equally. Which is also why I believe that it should be everyone's job to pitch in for the cure to these genetic diseases. 
            All in all, if we are going to research and find all kinds of new discoveries concerning genetics, perhaps we should create some boundaries for ourselves before we even begin. Yes, this is exciting and this is the future, we can choose our children not to have diseases or to have there personality traits that we like, but the ethics behind this are numerous and very arguable on both sides.