Should Children Have a Right to Know Their Biologicalparents?

A moral justification for genetic treatment is only as accurate as the justification of disease. In the realms of objective science and the use of genetic testing, Kitcher argues that the basis for terminating a pregnancy due to a severe syndrome can also lead to the basis for termination due to an undesired sex or possibly even homosexuality. Ultimately, Kitcher supports only a minimalist approach to the use of

Gina Kolata’s article, Ethics Questions Arise as Genetic Testing of Embryos Increases (2014), explains that as the increase of the testing of embryos for parents to choose whether or not to have children has also brought its ethical questions in the light. Kolata uses the Kalinskys case, a family in the article, and how their neurological disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-Schinker (GSS), has raised questions for ethicists who have looked into the case. Kolata’s purpose in writing this article is to inform the audience on the growing topic of embryo testing and also the ethical question that also accompany in order to have the audience to develop a personal view on the issue. Given how the author explains the technical terms used within the article, Kolata is writing to an audience that is not fully aware of genetic testing.

He or she may feel obligated to listen to both sets of parents and will not know what to do. This could cause the child to reject both sets of parents’ wishes and beliefs, which could cause depression and anxiety in the child because of the lack of parental conformity (Byrd).

Genetic testing has brought about many changes in the way many couples look at conceiving and raising families. Through genetic testing you are able to screen for the increased chance that a fetus may have one of many congenital disorders, or even identify gene changes that are responsible for a disease that has already been diagnosed (Genetic Testing, March 2015). Unfortunately genetic testing is not always exact, in some cases giving parents false negatives or false positive results. Even if the results are accurate, there is the burden of knowledge once you know the results indicate a genetic abnormality such as Down’s syndrome. While caring for a 2 year old male patient with developmental delays and anotia, I learned that genetic testing had been started but never completed on the child. Genetic testing could help to identify genetic disorders that led to the child’s developmental delays and possible future disorders that may develop. The ethical dilemma I will be discussing to the ANA Ethical dilemma of the impact of informed consent of genetic testing on children for adult onset diseases and disorders.

We are living in a new era where technology can help women have babies in unconventional ways. Having children is a personal choice. In some people’s view, government should not be regulating when people should and should not start having a family. The ethical issue is when the parents start applying for governmental benefits after the baby is conceived via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and born posthumously. When practicing IVF, are we violating God’s will? This paper is to discuss the views of the four candidates interviewed in relation to posthumous conception and delivery, their views on benefits/inheritance entitlement to these babies, and ethical principles and theories in

Understandably, the welfare of children is a sensitive topic to many and a subject that it much more complicated than one person’s opinion. It seems like everyone has something to say about it and for good reason. However, with all the input, not all ideas will be the same. There are extremes and then there places in the ‘middle’ where opinions can fall. One of those opinions seems to be the most widely believed: parents have no right to give up their parental rights when they were the ones who decided to have them in the first place, except in extreme circumstances.

In chapter four of her book Genetic Dilemmas, Dena Davis asserts that it is unethical for parents to subject their children to genetic testing for the markers of adult-onset genetic diseases because it places an unfair constraint on a child’s right to an open future. It both removes the child’s ability to choose whether to be tested as an adult and has the potential to negatively alter the overall trajectory of their lives. While the current consensus amongst medical professionals is that such testing should be prohibited (Davis, _____), many concerned parents correctly point out that discouraging such testing creates a conflict of interests between the “beneficence model of patient care and the rights of parents to their own autonomy”

In the first article “Parental Consent Laws are Necessary” by Michael New, New explains that the benefit of putting parental

There are worse problems than not knowing whom their donor parent is, though. Lots of donor children grow up not knowing that they have a greater chance of having a medical problem. To donate, a person does not have to take any certain tests. They just have to show up and if their sperm or eggs look fine the hospital staff take it. “Regardless of socioeconomic status, donor offspring are twice as likely as those raised by biological parents to report problems with the law before age 25. They are more than twice as likely to report having struggled with substance abuse. And they are about 1.5 times as likely to report depression or other mental health problems,” said Karen Clark, an investigator. Not only are donor children more likely to get into problems with the law, they are more likely to get into problems dealing with their health. That is why donor children and their parents, the ones who raised them, should be allowed to know who the donor parent is.

Genetic information can be identified at any point throughout a person’s lifespan from pre-conception until after death. In addition to heritable, biological information, family history, genetic test results, and medical records are also sources of genetic information” (Jenkins & Lea, 2005). We are put in a position to gather and retain information that could be utilized for a better future, but is confidentiality involved for the sake of profiting? Ask yourself, who should have access to genetic information? Who owns and controls it? How can families resolve conflicts when some members want to be tested for a genetic disorder and others do not?

Marcel Berlin a researcher for The Guardian notes that it is no answer to say that the donor know this may happen but how could he know how he would feel like eighteen years down the road? Marcel berlin points out that it is claimed psychological harm can be caused to children who do not know their father, but is there an equal argument about the harm that can be done to the father and those who are close to him? The pro viewpoint believes that donor privacy should be protected. Hopefully those reasons gave you more of an understanding as to why they feel that

There are couples where one member may be infertile, there are women or men who may want to raise children on their own, and there are homosexual couples who all want to have children. These people can turn to gamete donors in order to pursue their goal of procreating. One half of the genetic material would come from a person who would be raising the child, while the other half would come from some donor. These two individuals might have opinion x about whether the donor identity ought to be anonymous or not and they may have opinion y about whether to even tell the child of their biological origins. What about the child’s opinion. There is no denying that there are at least three key players, and in many cases four, who these types of opinions and decisions affect. That is the genetic and social parent, the non-genetic social parent (in some cases), the gamete donor, and the child. In this essay I intend to argue that it is ethically appropriate to inform children who are conceived by means of an egg or sperm donor of their biological origins and, in the case that they wish to know, the identity of their donor.

How do you tell your child that he was conceived after his father died in a car accident? Technology today is “improving the prospects of posthumous procreation, that is, having children after one’s death” (Rae, 2009, p. 181). This delicate issue is defined as a production of offspring arising after death (dictionary.com). This new, successful technology presents one of the most challenging ethical issues to tackle in healthcare. There are so many unanswered questions when discussing this topic. Should it be allowed? Who decides whether sperm can be collected? When should it be used to conceive (Kahn, 2009)? Above all, should a man be forced to become a parent? In American society, we do not force men or women to become parents being that they can decide for themselves. Conversely, one can decide for them in the event they have passed away. This deems to be an issue of contradiction which is why I take a stance against posthumous procreation.

How would you like to wake up next to your boyfriend/husband someday and find out he is your half-brother? I wonder how often this happens and I wonder how many people don’t even realize its happened to them. We live in a time where you don’t need to have a relationship with someone to have their child, you don’t even have to know them. With egg donors and sperm donors this has become common place. I believe it should be a mandatory requirement for anyone involved with sperm or egg donation to register with the Donor Sibling Registry and no one involved should be allowed to remain anonymous. There should also be a limit to the amount of donations made. No one person should be able to populate the world.

For the child to be willing to find out who their biological parents are is something that a lot of people question. On the other hand it is the right of the child to search for their biological parents if they have the desire to. When they are grown up then they have the right to make their own decision about what they want to do. No one should have the right to tell someone not to do something that they want to do. All children should have the right to choose whether they want to find out who their biological parents are without the saying of other