preview

Persuasive Essay On Alzheimer's Disease

Decent Essays

Imagine, a thirty year old woman wants to start her own family but has family history of Alzheimer’s disease and has tested positive for the Alzheimer’s genes as well. In fear of passing on the disease to her child, she underwent preimplantation genetic diagnosis, also known as PGD. The woman decided to implant embryos without the Alzheimer’s gene into her womb and months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby, free of the Alzheimer’s gene. Currently, preimplantation genetic diagnosis is mostly only used in similar cases, like eliminating the possibility to obtain life-affecting diseases. Many people would agree that PGD is for the great good of the planet but however, there are possible negative results that could come out of PGD and designer …show more content…

Firstly, being able to detect genetic disorders, such as Down Syndrome, could result in the parents aborting the fetus. Margaret Somerville said in Choosing The Perfect Child,"In short, the new genetics is functioning as eugenics, but that fact is not identified. Decisions by individuals based on preimplantation genetic diagnosis of IVF embryos, or prenatal screening of foetuses mean we will eliminate certain groups of people, for example, Down's Syndrome children, from our society. In short, an outcome that would never be acceptable as public policy is being implemented through the accumulation of individual choices”(actionlife.org). To abort a child because of their genes are incorrect and need extra assistance with daily chores is selfish and inhuman. Not to mention, if a family had PGD on their child and received a false positive result, the unborn child could very well be killed needlessly. Then secondly, if all PGD got rid of all genetically transferred diseases, it could affect the world’s population. Since more lives would be saved, the world’s population would increase at an alarming rate. It would cause the the world’s resources dwindle down extensively and make the resources very

Get Access