Two days ago in the New York Times, Gina Kolata told the story of Amanda Kalinsky, a 30-year-old woman who learned at age 26 that she would eventually die a slow, awful, premature death from a genetic disease. At first she assumed she couldn’t in good conscience bear children, since they might inherit the gene. But then she learned that she could create IVF embryos with her husband, test them for the gene, and implant the ones that would be disease-free.
Embryo screening is a double-edged technology, full of grim possibilities. One worrisome trend is the spread of this practice from diseases that strike children to diseases that strike adults. It’s logical to question how far we should go in weeding out lesser or less immediate defects.
Read the full, original story: The Moral Effects of Experience
