PGD Testing - Selecting healthy embryos

Recently, specialists have been able to use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to implant healthy embryos into the womb and discard the embryos which are damaged. Experts believe that this genetic screening of embryos could eventually eliminate diseases such as breast cancer and cystic fibrosis. However, this prospect worries many ethicists. Bernadette Tobin, an ethicist at Australian Catholic University, was quoted in the article saying that selecting some embryos while rejecting others is a morally unacceptable way of avoiding having a child with a serious disease. Furthermore, discarding embryos with certain diseases creates a slippery slope. Sydney IVF medical director Dr. Mark Bowman says that they "are testing for serious genetic diseases." But, who's to say where a disease stops being "serious" and becomes "mild." By allowing this kind of embryo selection parents will start discarding possible children in search of that perfect embryo with no setbacks whatsoever. Eventually, this process could lead to an experience in which parents line up their embryos and select the best one from the bunch, much like one shops in the mall or the supermarket. Though this is probably not reasonable at the moment because we do not know the functions of all of the genes, it is certainly possible that one day it could be a reality.

I do understand that the main goal of this testing is to prevent children being born with incredibly painful and challenging lifelong diseases. However, another objection to this type of selection is that people will almost always choose to throw out the embryos with genetic "malfunctions" and we will start to see a decline or even lose much of the disabled population. This genocide of sorts against the disabled is also unethical. They should have just as much of a right to survive as perfectly healthy children do. There is no reason that a child with a severe disability cannot live a worthwhile life.

Instead of rejecting embryos because of an undesirable genetic trait, we should strive to create cures for diseases so that when a person with a serious illness chooses, they will be able to reduce the suffering or improve their condition. They should be allowed to live and subsequently, they should be given the choice to live with their disease or to use the cure. It is not our jobs to play God and choose which embryos gets to develop and which get put in the trash.

Relevant site: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/designing-principles-at-birth-of-a-new-era-20091121-is43.html