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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Cancer-Free Baby

"The first child in Britain known to have been screened as an embryo to ensure she did not carry a cancer gene was born Friday"...CNN
"Her embryo was screened in a lab days after conception to check for the BRCA-1 gene, linked to breast and ovarian cancer."...CNN
"She pointed out that the unidentified woman and her husband had used medical science to screen 11 embryos fertilized via the in vitro process for the presence of one gene, called BRCA-1."...MSNBC
"Of the 11 embryos conceived in the lab, five were free of the gene. Two were implanted in the woman, with one becoming a viable fetus."...MSNBC

ok....here is where my post starts. question is, is this ethical? is it right to bring a child into this world knowing that it could develop cancer? is it wrong to dispose of all the other embryos because they weren't worthwhile to the parents?
i'm not entirely sure how i feel about all of this, but i do know what i believe. i don't think we should be able to pick and choose our children. are we heading towards a "superior race"? if that is the goal, then leave me out of it. i kind of like life messy. it's more interesting that way. i guess it depends on if you like the roller coaster or the carousel.
and just because this child is "cancer free", doesn't mean it can't develop some other disease.
did they actually save this baby or did they do more harm than good? i don't believe that all diseases are from nature. i believe that some were created through medical science. when humans start to play God, things are bound to get screwed up. they are messing with the natural order of life. for every good their is an evil, that is a fact. and yet, they sit in their laboratories and come up with these "quick fixes" without thinking of the consequences.
is this little girls genetics now screwed up? how will this effect her children and her children's children? did anyone stop to think about any of that? i doubt it.
or will this all boil down to developing the perfect child and then cloning afterwards? when do we say "when"? or "enough is enough"?
how far is science willing to go before they finally open their eyes and let nature take its course?

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