Causing Deaf Children
(New Scientist 2006)---A few years ago, a lesbian couple in the U.S. sparked controversy when they chose a deaf sperm donor to ensure their children, like them, would be deaf. Now it appears that some would-be parents are resorting to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to achieve the same thing, by selecting and implanting embryos that will develop into deaf children.
This comes from a survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC on how PGD is being used in the U.S.
Deep inside the report is this paragraph: "Some prospective parents have sought PGD to select an embryo for the presence of a particular disease or disability, such as deafness, in order that the child would share that characteristic with the parents. Three percent of IVF-PGD clinics report having provided PGD to couples who seek to use PGD in this manner."
It is not clear how many, if any, children have been born after embryo selection for a disability, or which disabilities have been selected for. I asked Susannah Baruch, the lead author of the GPPC report, who told me that the team does not have any more details.
So let's do the sums: Since the survey included 137 IVF-PGD clinics, 3% means 4 couples at least, more if you assume some of the 200 clinics who did not respond to the survey have also provided this service. And since the success rate of IVF is roughly 30%, even if each couple made only one attempt at least one child must have been born with a designer disability, most likely deafness, with the help of PGD.
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Answer the following questions in essay form according to the assignment instructions. In your answer, refer to the case study and at least one of the authors from Topic 8 or 9 (Glannon, Savulescu, Brock, Callahan). Make sure to cite where appropriate.
Is it right to deliberately cause a child to be deaf and thereby limit her opportunities in life? If so, why? If not, why not?
Should medical authorities or the government restrict the use of IVF and PGD to selecting only healthy embryos?
If both prospective parents have inherited deafness, there is a high probability that their child will be deaf. So their failing to use IVF/PGD to select healthy embryos would almost guarantee a deaf baby. Is such a failure morally wrong? If so, is deliberately selecting impaired embryos equally wrong?
Give reasons for all of your answers.
