Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis Elaine Kelley It would be difficult to find political support in our American society today for policies of infanticide of all Females and brown-eyed babies. It would even be hard to garner support for the killing of babies who will need glasses, or even those who have asthma. Would our American society, the one that so often declares itself an example to the world, ever support the “mercy killing” of babies that were born deformed or were developmentally challenged? I am not sure if there is a poll on the future of infanticide in the United States, but my best educated guess is that such ideas are simply unthinkable in our culture. A simple determinant of right and wrong in a society is to ask the question, “is it a good idea in our culture to…?” (Condit August 24th). Yet many ethical issues cannot be simplified to such a level. Reproductive technology is one of those issues where lines of ethics are blurred, boundaries of religion are broken and politics is constantly racing to keep up with the new science. One aspect of reproductive technology that is new and includes an immense span of uncharted territory is Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD. PGD is not synonymous with infanticide, nor is it necessarily a tool for eugenics or marketable designer babies. Yet PGD’s possible relation to the latter calls for public dialogue, specifically in our social and political realm in the United States, about where the legal boundaries should be, and what ethical principles we have that back up those potential policies. The U.S. educational system reveres societies like ancient Greece, and its many philosophers including Aristotle and Plato. Yet few are aware that the Greeks practiced blatant infanticide and dangerous genetic selection. Debora L. Spar writes in The Baby Business that the ancient Greeks “routinely left unwanted babies to die and deformed infants were killed at birth” (101). Plato writes in his “The Republic” that “the offspring of the inferior, or of the Amendment
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