A maried couple wishes to have a child; however, the 32 year old mother knows th

Question

A maried couple wishes to have a child; however, the 32 year old mother knows that she is a carrier for Huntington's disease (HD). HD is a genetic disorder that begins showing signs at anywhere from 35-45 y of age. Its symptoms begin with slow loss of muscle control and end in loss of speech, large muscle spasn disorientation and emotional outbursts. After 15-20 years of symptoms HD ends in death. HD is a domina disorder which means that her child will have a 50% chance of contracting the disorder. Feeling that riski their baby's health would be irresponsible, the couple decides to use in vitro fertilization to fertilize seve he wife's eggs. Several eggs are harveste ra d, and using special technology, only eggs that do not have the lefective gene are kept to be fertilized. The physician then fertilizes a single egg, and transfers the embryo he mother. Approximately 9 months later, the couple gives birth to a boy who does not carry the gene for t isorder. Is this a case of eugenics? "Eugenics" is defined as "the hereditary improvement of the human race controlled by selective breeding" (dictionary.com) e

Explanation / Answer

1) Yes this is the case of Eugenics as eugenics deals with the development of specific characters in human beings with selective breeding and developing the desired characters. In the above scenario the couple opted for a child with desired character with no Huntington disease and with these they have selectively able to remove the disease traits form the child genome.

3) Yes it is ethical for the couple to have the child even though the mother is affected with the disease as there are chances that with social behavior with the child the woman might delay the symptoms. As Huntington disease can be delayed with social behavior and care and moreover there are researches going on to delay the symptom of disease if possible she might be able to get cured completely.

2) Yes this is ethical situation as the couple selected the desired embryo which shows no characters of disease and as no genetic medication was done with the embryo we can say the whole process was ethical. By performing pre embryo testing they have selected the baby with no diseased but didn’t modified or changed the genetic structure of child and in later stage if the mother of child develops the child she can treated or at least be delayed the symptoms of diseased.

With no availability of selective breeding of desired embryo it is ethical to have the child with the disease as we can stop the natural process and natural selection. With the recessive characters there are chance that the child is free from the disease which is completely ethical and having child with disease can be cured with available treatment or at least the symptom can be delayed with proper care and treatment or if possible with any available treatment in future. Child with cystic fibrosis can be treated with use of antibiotic treatment and lung transplantation can also be option for healthy life which is completely ethical.

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