NWR: genetic selection

mwhitson14 · November 2009

I'm watching private practice and there is a little couple who wants to use genetic selection to have a child that is also a dwarf. The dr. ends up refusing to do it, saying they should just be happy they could have a healthy baby, not try to dictate the baby's height. Thoughts on genetic selection?

shellydiane820 · November 2009

I think its unnatural. Just let nature take its course.

janedoe1113a · November 2009

I think the doctor's right. Just let nature do what it wants to do.

kkchisholm · November 2009

you forgot to add she wouldnt do it because the embryos with dwarfism had a very high chance of developing cancer in their twenties.I think she made the right call.

megk8oz · November 2009

I don't even like those alleged "gender" schedules where couples TTC on certain days that are more likely to give them a boy or a girl depending on what they want.I'm a firm believer that if something isn't a life-threatening condition, just let nature do it's job. Lots of people turned out great by letting nature do it's thing.

mwhitson14 · November 2009

Right, but she was against it even before that issue came up.

Ciaram22 · November 2009

I personally hate the idea of choosing the traits my child would have. I am going to be happy with whatever the children I am blessed with are. Unless I had a child who needed a life saving operation and the best donor would be a sibling then I might change my mind.

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

This is something that I'm fascinated with. Soon, you will be able to pick your childs eye color, hair color, intelligence level, etc. Think GATTACA. It's called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. Those that say they are against it...if you have to go through IVF, are you against selecting only the healthy embryos to be inserted? If you know that you are inserting an embryo with Taysachs syndrom (which is one they can now test for), isn't that irresponsible?

lyndausvi · November 2009

I not a fan of it. Just let nature takes it's course.

janedoe1113a · November 2009

Genetic selections are fine if it's for a health reason. If they're going to be born with a disease and you can do something about it, then okay.But choosing their eye color, height, etc, is just ridiculous.

kkchisholm · November 2009

I was just thinking GATTACA!

panda&squishy · November 2009

We're probably going to go through IVF someday because of my malfunctioning ovaries. FI would like to select gender if we're in a situation where we have two kids of one gender and would like the third child to be the opposite gender. I'm undecided, but have several years to think about it. I'm not okay with choosing eye color, etc.

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

It's pretty scary, but it's on its way. In the last 4 years, they have made HUGE advances in the technology, but no legislation to keep up with it. Right now, it's up to the doctor's discretion about if they want to do it or not. I wish I would have gone into something medical so I could have ended up a researcher on this.

thesportsgal21 · November 2009

The Times did an article about this a few years ago. A woman who carried the gene of early-onset Alzheimer's wanted to make sure her baby didn't get the gene, so they did in-vitro and tested the embryos. She went on to have a healthy baby girl. But when her kid is about 10 she'll be motherless... I had an ethics teacher in college who made a good point about genetic trait selection for health reasons. You're not really getting rid of the gene, you're getting rid of the embryos that have the gene... and therein lies the problem for some people.

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

*I'm playing devils advocate here, because I can honestly see both sides, after lots and lots of research.why do you have a problem picking eye color? It doesn't hurt anyone, one way or the other. FI has beautiful blue eyes and I would love for our kids to have that eye color.

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

You're not really getting rid of the gene, you're getting rid of the embryos that have the gene... and therein lies the problem for some people. Why? You'd be 'getting rid' of some of them anyways...

tlv204 · November 2009

I don't plan to ever go through IVF. If we can't have children, I would rather adopt, so I guess I'm in the camp that in most situations, including fertility, I would prefer to let nature take its course for our children, biological or not.

panda&squishy · November 2009

My problem with things like eye color - why go through the time and huge expense for something as unimportant as eye color. Does anyone really care what color their children's eyes are anyway?

kkchisholm · November 2009

lvb- picking eye color and hair color etc = gattaca becoming real life!

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

But if you're going through IVF anyway, it's not really any extra cost. Its just one more test during the slew of tests they take.

thesportsgal21 · November 2009

Right, and it makes better sense to remove the ones that will have serious health and quality of life issues. It was a problem for most of my ethics class for someone to choose a certain eye color and "throw away" the ones that didn't have it.

Ciaram22 · November 2009

I just want whatever I'm blessed with. I have no preference of anything. If you have the option to choose what your child looks like it gets rid of the surprise element. If I weren't such a must know now type of person i would wait until the baby was born to even figure out what the gender was.

LP11509 · November 2009

Genetic selection frightens me. I'm deaf, i work at an agency that serves deaf clients, all of my coworkers are deaf, a good percent of my friends are deaf...I'm afraid that people will use genetic selection to weed out deaf babies. And that would make me sad.

[Deleted User] · November 2009

Thoughts on genetic selection?i'm looking in your direction, ivf people.

panda&squishy · November 2009

lvb - if you're already in there searching through embryos anyway because of IVF, I guess that's one thing. But to do it just for eye color, hair color, etc, then that's just silly.

thesportsgal21 · November 2009

That is sad, LP

I don't look at deafness as a disability at all. It's really more of a culture. I loved my ASL class, I learned so much more than signing!

louisvillebride21 · November 2009

What about the ethics of choosing to have a deaf baby?

LP11509 · November 2009

Awesome that you took ASL

Most people don't even realize that it has a completely different structure than english, and the there IS such a thing as Deaf culture. Kudos to you!

janedoe1113a · November 2009

LP -- Off-topic, but you look a lot like a girl in my Japanese class.

Ciaram22 · November 2009

ASL was an awesome class when I first started. Then I missed a week and a half of school and couldn't catch back up. If I ever go back to college I will definitely start it again.

lyndausvi · November 2009

I'm just not that controlling to care what my future kids hair and eye colors are. As far as IVF and picking out the best embroys. I get that, but I can see couples doing IVF soley for the genetic selection and not because they can not conceive naturally.

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