Many U.S. Couples Seek Embryo Screening

If you could, would you choose the sex of your next child? What about their eye color? hair color? At what point is it acceptable to have an active hand in the characteristics of a child? Who should have that authority to choose?

One of the problems with the continual “advances” in reproductive technology is that we are getting to be a people getting ever more comfortable at playing God. It started with abortion– the idea that we could vacuum out, perform dismemberment abortion or partial-birth abortion in order to “empower women”, “give them the right to choose”, or provide late birth control.

What poison this action has brought to our culture– between technology and “the right to choose” we now have countries that are choosing to kill children based on sex, and in this country– though we haven’t gotten this far yet– we’re to the point that we are starting to choose what the child we have will be.

Sex selection without any medical reason to warrant it was performed in about 9 percent of all embryo screenings last year, the survey found.

Another controversial procedure _ helping parents conceive a child who could supply compatible cord blood to treat an older sibling with a grave illness _ was offered by 23 percent of clinics, although only 1 percent of screenings were for that purpose in 2005.

For the most part, couples are screening embryos for the right reasons _ to avoid passing on dreadful diseases, said Dr. William Gibbons, who runs a fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, La., and is president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, which assisted with the survey.

“There are thousands of babies born now that we know are going to be free of lethal and/or devastating genetic diseases. That’s a good thing,” he said.

However, the survey findings also confirm many ethicists’ fears that Americans increasingly are seeking “designer babies” not just free of medical defects but also possessing certain desirable traits.

The problem that I have is not necessarily one of the ones that the ethicists may be concerned about. What happens to all of those unborn children that do not pass the tests– that are not the girl that was desired, that were born with some slight defect in our eyes?

And then I also wonder about what this does to human life– I believe it cheapens it. If the scientists end up not giving you the child you thought you were getting, will there be a lawsuit? What will that say to the child– or other children? How will that impact the feelings future couples have for their children?

Children could become the next commodity. It truly is a slippery slope from looking at a child– any child– as a blessing and a gift to something that is designed, planned, and if it’s not what was purchased, returned?! I don’t know about you, but I think I preferred it back in the days when we didn’t have all of this technology– and God was God.