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Genetic Screening Persuasive Essay

Decent Essays

Sitting in the hospital waiting room, the doctor’s condolences wash over you as you desperately try to make sense of his words: “Anencephaly. It’s a rare genetic disorder. I’m sorry, but there’s no treatment or cure. Your son has a few weeks at most.” Every year 7.8 million children are born with a serious birth defect of genetic or partly genetic origin. (The Global Toll of Birth Defects) Imagine if this number could be halved or even reduced to a quarter of the original number. Should we not try to reduce this number? It is in our best interests to do so. The most effective way to do that is through gene editing. Thanks to advancements in gene editing technology, a future with far less genetic defects and diseases is not that far away. Professor Julian Savulescu states that “Gene editing could be used to cure genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or thalassaemia (the blood disease that the Chinese researchers were working to eliminate). At present, there are no cures for such diseases.” While disputants will insist that prenatal screening for genetic selection could allow couples to simply choose a healthy embryo, “genetic selection doesn’t benefit patients - it’s not a cure. It merely brings a different person, who is free from disease, into existence. Future …show more content…

When scientists set out to cure blindness, there were hardly any naysayers. So why does the concept of gene-editing frighten so many people? It is essentially the same; scientists are trying to cure a disadvantageous condition. The answer is because people fear the unknown. But as bioethicist Henry Greely says, “Choices will be made, and if informed people do not participate in making those choices ignorant people will make them.” (Ball) Surely it is better to regulate this technology now than to outlaw it, which would only slow the

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