CASE STUDIES
1.) A couple finds out that they are pregnant and go to the doctor to confirm. Follow up visits ensue and in the seventh month they find out that their child is developing abnormally. The doctor informs them that through advances in the Human Genome Project and Genovations, they could potentially fix the problem by altering the genetic makeup of the child in question. Is it the right of the parent to be able to change the genetic makeup of their child in order to allow it to live a normal and healthy life, or is this interference of nature and should not be allowed under any circumstances.
As stated on my ethics page, ETHICAL ISSUES, it is up to individual morals to decide what is right and what is wrong in a case of this nature. It is my opinion that the procedure should be allowed to take place for the sake of the child. The child should be allowed to live a normal and healthy life and if that means altering it's genetic makeup then so be it. It is not selfish or immoral to do such a thing because the basis behind it is the parent's love for the child. The parent would simply be looking out for the well being of his or her baby.
2.) A couple finds out that they are pregnant and go to the doctor to confirm. Follow up visits ensue and over the course of the pregnancy the baby develops normally. In the seventh month the parents go to the doctor and tell him that they have been doing some research on the human genome project and that they want their child to have blond hair and blue eyes. They know that the technology is there, but should the parents be allowed to change physical traits of their child even though the child is developing normally? What ethical decision is presented on behalf of the doctor?
Again, my beliefs may differ from others but I believe that there is no way that the parents should be able to alter the physical traits of the child. The child is going to develop and live a normal and happy life the way that it is. It strikes me that the parent are taking on an Adolf Hitler approach to their offspring in that they want to create the "perfect human". Hitler was wrong for trying to do so and the doctor and parents would be wrong for trying to do so.
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