Ethics Discussion
In my cell biology class the other day we had an ethics talk about new
things coming out and what is right or wrong in our opinion. An article
came up about two parents who were deaf and they wanted their son or
daughter (they didn't care boy or girl) to be deaf as well. So they
told the doctor to pick the embryo that would produce a child that was
deaf
like them so that the child could fit into their family better.
We talked about how we felt about this and most of the class thought that is wasn't right for the parents to be able to decide that for the child. Without the child knowing he was destined for a life of hearing aids and struggles. Of course it isn't terrible to be deaf, but having to wear hearing aids and having problems causing them to frequent doctors' offices shouldn't be what parents wish upon their children.
It was really a heated discussion. Most of the class agreed that the parents were wrong to do this (it is like wishing your child had a disorder or disease) but one person thought that parents should be able to do whatever they want with their embryos.
If I was a parent who decided to do this I would definitely need some sort of sleep aid to go to bed at night. I am completely against this and feel that you should want your child to be healthy in any way possible and should love them the way that they come out.
We went on to talk about a lot of other topics as well like knowing what diseases your embryos may carry and insurance policies and testing on humans and so on, but this one topic really stood out to me and stuck in my mind. I feel like people shouldn't be able to change who you are before you are born without you having any say in it. I guess though that's an issue that I will have to deal with in the field that I am going into (pharmacy and research) and I will need to form a strong opinion on my beliefs before I enter the field. I definitely want to practice fair and impartial medicine when I'm a pharmacist one day but then at the same time I need to make sure that I stay true to everything that I believe in.
We talked about how we felt about this and most of the class thought that is wasn't right for the parents to be able to decide that for the child. Without the child knowing he was destined for a life of hearing aids and struggles. Of course it isn't terrible to be deaf, but having to wear hearing aids and having problems causing them to frequent doctors' offices shouldn't be what parents wish upon their children.
It was really a heated discussion. Most of the class agreed that the parents were wrong to do this (it is like wishing your child had a disorder or disease) but one person thought that parents should be able to do whatever they want with their embryos.
If I was a parent who decided to do this I would definitely need some sort of sleep aid to go to bed at night. I am completely against this and feel that you should want your child to be healthy in any way possible and should love them the way that they come out.
We went on to talk about a lot of other topics as well like knowing what diseases your embryos may carry and insurance policies and testing on humans and so on, but this one topic really stood out to me and stuck in my mind. I feel like people shouldn't be able to change who you are before you are born without you having any say in it. I guess though that's an issue that I will have to deal with in the field that I am going into (pharmacy and research) and I will need to form a strong opinion on my beliefs before I enter the field. I definitely want to practice fair and impartial medicine when I'm a pharmacist one day but then at the same time I need to make sure that I stay true to everything that I believe in.