Confessions of a "Genetic Outlaw"

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A new method for screening embryos for disease may provide more reason to brand some people dissidents for bringing their kids into the world Editor's note: this is the first of two perspectives to be published by BusinessWeek.com on preimplantation genetic haplotyping, a new technique for screening embryos for 6,000 inherited diseases

Elizabeth R. Schiltz is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn. Her story about the prenatal diagnosis of her son has been recently republished in Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics.

From time to time, we are all confronted with the disconnect between how we see ourselves and how others see us. I've always seen myself as a responsible, law-abiding citizen. I recycle, I vote, I don't drive a Hummer. But I've come to realize that many in the scientific and medical community view me as grossly irresponsible. Indeed, in the words of Bob Edwards, the scientist who facilitated the birth of England's first test-tube baby, I am a "sinner." A recent book even branded me a "genetic outlaw." My transgression? I am one of the dwindling number of women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and choose not to terminate our pregnancies.

So when I hear about medical breakthroughs like preimplantation genetic haplotyping (PGH)—a new technique to screen embryos in the in vitro fertilization process for 6,000 inherited diseases—I can't help but see 6,000 new reasons that parents will be branded as sinners or made to feel socially irresponsible for bringing their children into this world.
[snip]
From my perspective, though, our increasingly sophisticated technological capacity to identify genetic defects in our children also presents some very real threats to the kind of world we will be passing on to them. A few years ago, author Christine Rosen wrote, "Those who oppose discarding unfit embryos or aborting unfit fetuses will soon become—perhaps already are—a dissident culture, tolerated at best, but more likely heavily regulated by a society that increasingly expects only healthy children to be born." [snip] Business Week
A Tip O' the Hat to Amy at Open Book

• Schiltz, Elizabeth
  
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