Hi Carol! I enjoyed reading your post. I agree with your analysis of the ethics of the situation--putting babies at risk without the possibility of significant benefit to them is completely unjustified. I also agree with you that the interest in designer babies is increasingly an ethical concern in our society, which seems somewhat worrying. How do we determine what is and isn't a "genetic defect" to be fixed? Obviously severe health problems that can lead to death are the first things to target, but what about conditions such as Down Syndrome?
What J. Marion Sims did was disgusting and horrible, and highlights the critical importance of treating everyone with human dignity and not labeling anyone as sub-human because he or she is different. I was horrified to find that his portrait was only recently removed from a prominent medical school.
What J. Marion Sims did was disgusting and horrible, and highlights the critical importance of treating everyone with human dignity and not labeling anyone as sub-human because he or she is different. I was horrified to find that his portrait was only recently removed from a prominent medical school.