Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/health/05essa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Wanting to have children who follow in one’s footsteps is an understandable desire. But a coming article in the journal Fertility and Sterility offers a fascinating glimpse into how far some parents may go to ensure that their children stay in their world — by intentionally choosing malfunctioning genes that produce disabilities like deafness or dwarfism.

The article reviews the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D., a process in which embryos are created in a test tube and their DNA is analyzed before being transferred to a woman’s uterus. In this manner, embryos destined to have, for example, cystic fibrosis or Huntington’s disease can be excluded, and only healthy embryos implanted.

Yet Susannah A. Baruch and colleagues at the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University recently surveyed 190 American P.G.D. clinics, and found that 3 percent reported having intentionally used P.G.D. “to select an embryo for the presence of a disability.” In other words, some parents had the painful and expensive fertility procedure for the express purpose of having children with a defective gene. It turns out that some mothers and fathers don’t view certain genetic conditions as disabilities but as a way to enter into a rich, shared culture.

It’s tempting to see this practice as an alarming trend; for example, the online magazine Slate called it “the deliberate crippling of children.” But a desire for children with genetic defects isn’t new. In 2002, for example, The Washington Post Magazine profiled Candace A. McCullough and Sharon M. Duchesneau, a lesbian and deaf couple from Maryland who both attended Gallaudet University and set out to have a deaf child by intentionally soliciting a deaf sperm donor. “A hearing baby would be a blessing,” Ms. Duchesneau was quoted as saying. “A deaf baby would be a special blessing.”

Those poor babies. Those selfish parents.

I see narcissism is alive and well.

this is disgusting...Absolutely disgusting... :wow:

Deaf parents have gone to court to PREVENT their children from getting a cochlear implant and hearing. Grandparents were trying to force it.
I think the grandparents won.

It made me really angry! This would be like a paralyzed child having the chance to walk again, or a blind child having the chance to see again, and their parents saying "No!".

Isn't this the moral equivalent of choosing whether or not to abort a deformed fetus?

fetus is deformed and decide that they can provide good quality of life even if that life is short. The article describes people selecting embryos specifically because they will be deformed in some way. It's the difference between accepting and loving a child with Down's syndrome versus drinking to induce fetal alcohol syndrome.

On one hand you've got a day old "defective" zygote, on the other hand you've got a two month old "defective" embryo. You're still "choosing" to have the defective one instead of "choosing" to have a "healthy" one.

They're not inducing the "defect," the "defect" is still occuring naturally.

i'd Like to add something, but no - it's not the same. at. aLL.

Explain why.

two: that's pretty much it.

you can compare if you Like, but this is a whoLe different baLL of was. i don't want to presume, but if you suffer from a disabiLity, wouLd you enjoy making your chiLdren endure what you have to go through?

Can't say it isn't.

There is a difference between an unimplanted embryo sitting in a dish vs. a kicking fetus in the womb. That's why choice is such a touchy issue.

And who would I be to make that decision for other people?

The article is not suggesting that anyone is selecting for Huntington's disease. The example given is of two parents who are dwarfs who do not consider dwarfism to be a terrible disease. I can understand that. Deliberately trying to bear a deaf child is something I can't understand.

as i was reading it over her shouLder. :puke:

as someone with a disabiLity (i have nerve deafness - incurabLe - compLeteLy in one ear and a portion in the other) that is most LikeLy genetic (a very rare hearing Loss, but i've met one person with the same affLiction and i've read/heard of others) i constantLy worry about the fact that my kids wiLL most LikeLy be affLicted by it (i'm Lucky that i stiLL have partiaL hearing in one ear).

i'm compLeteLy at ease with the difficuLty that i go through Life with - it's reaLLy fucking hard! - since i've been deaLing with it since age 4, but i wouLd never, ever, choose to have my chiLd/chiLdren purposefuLLy suffer what i went through just because i had to, and stiLL do.

it just makes me sick, and unbeLievabLy angry (yes, even for me - it's beyond my usuaL anger) that someone wouLd PURPOSELY infLict their chiLdren with the same affLiction. i wouLd Love, and adore my kids, whatever affLiction they have, and if they were geneticaLLy born with the hearing Loss i deveLoped, yes i wouLd have a speciaL kinship with them, but i wouLd prefer them not to have to struggLe Like i did through most of my Life (and yes, as i said, stiLL do).

again, i'm absoLuteLy sick that anyone wouLd try to make their chiLdren a crippLe. x(

Just when the deaf community was able to establish ASL as a legitimate language, some new methods of treating deafness were developed. The problem here is the tension between what some view as a viable culture and others view as a defect. People with normal hearing would like to wipe out deafness, but some (most?) deaf people see this as an attempt to wipe out the deaf community. I would like to see every child with perfect hearing, but I can sort of see the deaf point of view.

On the other hand, is dwarfism really that much of a defect? What about pale skin? I sun burn like crazy. What about male pattern baldness?

Not the bullshit religious programs that claim to turn people from gay to straight. But finding the biological gene or genetic factors that cause gayness and giving parents the option to screen it out.

I doubt gay people would consider their sexuality a "defect" but many heterosexual parents would surely discard a gay embryo if given the opportunity to do so.

It would be the same as choosing whether to have a boy or a girl.

I think that's what the poster was attempting to say.

Lost my internet access for awhile and just got back online to reply.......thought I was about to get the shakes lol.

edited: spelling

I think that's a good analogy, but I think there are issues with allowing parents to choose either gender or orientation without some reason.

The most obvious one being that in certain cultures it will lead to a severe imbalance of men to women, which is probably undesirable (or rather, an even more severe imbalance than is currently the case).

i'm a rare breed of deafness - there is no cure. maybe someday there wiLL be, but since i was a chiLd and even now there is no cure. you can not repLace the nerve.
even the cochLear impLant won't work for peopLe who suffer from this.

Like i said, i wouLd not try to stop my chiLd from coming into this worLd based on deafness/partiaL-deafness; but i wouLd prefer they not have to go through what i went through and stiLL go through. i'm compLeteLy at ease with what i go through, and how i've adjusted my Life to go aLong with it (when you Lose any of your senses, it compLeteLy aLters who you are in pretty much every facet you can imagine. on an upside however: i have the strongest sense of smeLL that anyone has ever known; i aLso have pretty good eye sight, by my nose astounds everyone), but i wouLd never, ever, choose to make anyone have this.

common cause of dwarfism, achondroplasia. Hydrocephalus, curvature of the spine, etc.

http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/681_1204.asp

Doesn't sound much like a blessing to me............:shrug:

Unbelievable. Why don't they just become a Tabloid and be done with it....

I think they are spotting a trend amongst certain people.

just as much as African American culture, or Hispanic culture, or Asian culture. As a result, they would feel just as strange if they married another deaf person and had a hearing baby as two African Americans would probably feel if they had a white baby. (I don't mean if they adopted such a baby; I mean if they conceived and birthed one.)

It sounds strange and I'm not sure I agree with it entirely, but just as they would not want to be able to hear even if medical science made it possible, they would also prefer not to have hearing children.

including a heart defect.

If I found out at some point that my parents deliberately selected such a defect for me because they have it or they thought it required to be part of their culture... lawsuits would be the least of the things they would have to worry about from me. I wouldn't wish my defects on anyone.

Just imagine finding out your disability wasn't a matter of genetic chance but a carefully chosen decision by your own parents. I would be livid. :grr:

and then some...and I'm dead serious.

Parents would seek to bring in the most competitive offspring into the world. The way I see it having the right to have children implies the moral duty of doing what's objectively best for it. By going out of your way to make sure your child has a specific genetic mutation which in any way could possibly hinder it at some point in its life is flat out unethical. The child maybe your legal dependent, and it may be your moral duty to care for it, yet by no means does the parent have absolute control of the fate of the child, it is not a plaything. If you want a living plaything go get a dog, but don't conceive a child. Childhood is a relatively short period of time in a humans life. The goal of having a child is to create another fully functioning and capable human, when you have kids, raising them isn't about your satisifaction and happiness, it's about doing what's right for the kid.

They just aren't in style right now, despite Madge's best efforts.
:sarcasm:

These people, if this is not some twisted urban legend sprung out of control into a full blown hoax, are sick.

for the Bush clan :evilgrin:

who also have extremly overweight kids. I always thought most of the parents purposely let their children be overweight so they could all feel the same. And I am basing this on what they have in their gorcery carts, etc. Isn't this also the same thing?

I would never purposely have a diabetic child to so I could feel some sort of "special bond" with them. This does seem like child abuse to me.