ISSUES | bio-tech

LEGAL ISSUES

You are tweaking one gene here, thenanother gene somewhere else must be shifting to balance the event.
This could ultimately lead to a situation whereeach child is programmed to do certain tasks, and is unable to do anything else.
U.S. federal law does not regulate PGD, and at this time fertility specialists and the general public are divided over the issue of whether or not selecting an embryo’s genetic makeup is acceptable.
Supporters of genetic testing state thatparental reproductive choice extends to the use of PGD and should be safeguarded against government intrusion.
As developmental biologist Stuart Newman points out, "No amount of data from laboratory animals will make the first human trials anything but experimental."
UNESCO's [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, forbids the production of cloned human beings.
The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs released a statement in 1994 in support of using genetic selection as a means to prevent, cure or specific diseases, but that selection based on benign characteristics was not ethical.
The FDA does not regulate fertility procedures, nor does it oversee the operations of the fertility clinics.

Families that can afford these alterations will be few, and this will only increase the disparity between the various social classes.
The freedom of the child to choose a profession of their choice in the future, will also be severelydecreased.
The human race must stop trying to play God bymessing with genetics and embryo alterations.
Interfering with nature.
It must also force fresh thinking about the principles that drive human behavior, such as the love that motivates a parent to be a parent or the truth about life's eternal nature that demands more than a desire for physical perfection in a child.
The technique of altering a fetus's DNA could simply push parents to treat children as a commodity, like a perfect Build-A-Bear, rather than treat them as a gift, one that commands unceasing love regardless of how a child turns out.
But faced with the prospect of wielding immense control over a child's future, parents could also be humbled at the responsibility, even frightened at having to make so many choices that are now beyond the power of humans.

The diversity of the gene pool and human genetics will be affected, and this may even lead to a major percentage of the human race being wiped out completely by some major disease.
A designer baby cost around $50,000. This will ultimately result in a segregation between the superior 'modified' humans, and the pure but minor ones.
The wealthy would be able to afford the selection of desirable traits in their offspring,while those of lower socioeconomic standing would not be able to access the same options.
The social-justice-and-negotiation model of rights provides additional support for the proposed right to be born free of genetic manipulation. It attends with care to the likehood that the commercial development ofreproductive cloning and IGM would exacerbate existing inequalities and create new forms of discrimination and inequality.
The children who were genetically tested would have no protection—unless we establish that freedom from genetic manipulation is indeed a human right.
Some proponents of inheritable genetic modification (IGM) predict that within a generation "enhanced" babies will be born with increased resistance to diseases, optimized height and weight, and increased intelligence