Topic: Designer Babies

Prompt: More recently, the issue of human genetic engineering has become a hot topic of ethical and moral debate.  Our technology and understanding of genetics has moved us to a place where parents are able to select what traits their children will have.  This has its benefits and its drawbacks.  Those advocates believe that, when possible, we should test the genetic code of prenatal children to prevent or reduce Down Syndrome, cystic  fibrosis, Huntington's Disease and other diseases that we know are due to the design of an individual's genetic code.  This technology has also been used by soon-to-be parents using IVF and egg/sperm donation to determine such things as their child's eye and hair color, height, etc.  On the other hand, these prenatal tests often lead to abortions as parents decide that they do not want or are not prepared for a child who may experience developmental difficulties or life-threatening illnesses.

Question: As stated in the artice The Problem with an Almost Perfect Genetic World http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/weekinreview/20harmon.html Mark A. Rothstein asks: "Where do you draw the line?...On the one hand we have to view this as a positive in terms of preventing disability and illness. But at what point are we engaging in eugenics and not accepting the normal diversity within a population?"

Additional Resources:

National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

National Human Genome Project http://www.genome.gov/

Playing God? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6998135&page=1 (article and video)