Ethics Questions Arise as Genetic Testing of Embryos Increases

     This is Amanda and Bradley Kalinsky and they have been in the middle of a very intense debate. Is it right for someone to choose what lives and dies? Is it right for someone to choose one embryo over another one? It is a touchy subject, but one must at least understand the potential benefits of genetic testing for unwanted genes. In this actual situation, as Janet Malek says, “If there is a paradigm example in which a parent can have an obligation to use this technology, this is it.”
     Amanda Kalinsky was devastated when the doctor told her that she had GSS, a disease that emerges in adulthood. When the symptoms of the disease appear, the individual is estimated to live around 5 years. When Amanda found out she had this disease, she was determined to continue her life. Many of her family members had died from this disease so it really hit home for her. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have kids, due to the possibility of her passing on the disease
     Amanda and Bradley later paid a company to create embryos via in vitro fertilization. After that, the Reproductive Genetics Institute tested the embryos for the GSS gene. Yes, some embryos had the GSS gene and were discarded. The children in the picture above were embryos that didn't have the GSS gene. Was it wrong to discard the embryos that had the GSS gene? Amanda didn't think so obviously but she had reasons to think that way. “That was a really hard thing to do,” she said. But getting pregnant and then deciding what to do would have been more difficult. “For me, destroying a fetus that is already growing inside of me was much different than discarding embryos that had not yet implanted,” she said.

     What do I think about this current situation and others like it? Honestly, any decision that a family has to make is their decision. The "right" decision is what they believe is right, and what they feel will benefit their family. What someone else thinks is right and wrong is completely irrelevant. Across the world, the concept of "right" and "wrong" is different. So, if there is no pure and true "right" or "wrong", then how can anything truly be defined as such? For those who are willing to understand this leap in science and take advantage of it, then good for them. For those who continue to show this science no respect, then that is their own problem.

Original Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/health/ethics-questions-arise-as-genetic-testing-of-embryos-increases.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Health&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

Related Link: http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/embryo-screening-and-the-ethics-of-human-60561