The moral case for designer babies

Indeed not. Apparently, what some bioethicists mean by “open future” is one in which both parents and children are kept ignorant of the ways their complement of genes may expose them to medical risks.

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Prenatal whole-genome sequencing will also provide parents with information about their prospective child’s genetic susceptibility to illnesses like lung cancer, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes. Armed with such genomic knowledge, mothers and fathers could make sure that they don’t smoke around their kid and later explain why it’s a really bad idea for him or her to take up a tobacco habit. Warned in advance about their child’s heightened risk of diabetes, parents could devise a diet and exercise regimen aimed at preventing its onset.

The American Medical Association (AMA) got it right when it offered ethical guidance to its members on prenatal genetic screening way back in 1994. “If prenatal diagnosis is performed, the principle of patient autonomy requires that all medically relevant information generated from fetal tests be passed along to the parent or parents,” the AMA declared. “While the physician should generally discourage requests for information about benign genetic traits, the physician may not ethically refuse to pass along any requested information in his or her possession. The final decision as to what information is deemed appropriate for disclosure can only fall to the parents, informed by the facts and recommendations presented to them by their physician.”

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