Would you back a familys decision to have stem cell research or preimplantation genetic diagnosis?
It’s an advantage to many families to have preimplantation genetic diagnosis. This procedure entails joining the egg and sperm outside of the womb, testing it for known genetic diseases, and then choosing an embryo that doesn’t have that genetic problem. It means a child with a genetic disease that would otherwise be deadly, or lead to a very painful life of suffering can be avoided – and it’s hard to say that’s wrong, although there are some people who do. So people can exercise individual choice about whether they would use that technology. It doesn’t seem right to impose a restriction that covers everyone since it’s a value not everyone would share. Stem cell transplants are getting more difficult. If we know a child like Kate’s life can be saved with a blood transfusion from the umbilical cord, and that’s available, it would be hard to respect a family’s desire not to have it. We probably would respect it, but that gets into much more difficult domain where we have to look at the d
