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In The Past:

• Hippocratic Oath
• Plato

In Our Time:

• Ethical Problems
• Ethical Challenges
• Technical Developments

In The Future:

• The World in 50 years

Should we allow scientist to change the DNA of our children genetically so we can prevent the spread of diseases that are passed down genetically?

There is a point in the future when scientist are able to change DNA in an embryo. This will support the fight against diseases such as breast cancer and color blindness. Scientist just have to investigate the DNA of the parents and they know what genes can cause diseases in their child. When they know what disease the child might get, they can operate the embryo in the womb of the mother and make sure that this baby won’t get this genetic disease. But scientist can also change other genes, genes that decide what color of hair you get or genes that decide the color of your eyes. When this is possible, parents can decide together with a doctor, who is able to change genes, how their child is going to look like. The doctor will do his job, and a genetic baby is formed. This genetic baby will be posses all the wishes of their parents. But is this ethically justified? Is this how our future, with only perfect humans, is going to look like? And what about the power of people who have this genetic information, they can create people who are extremely loyal, strong, smart, stupid or helpful. Should these people rule the world? Some people don’t think so. They accept their children as they are and they say that we should keep our hands of the human DNA. An actual example is: a woman is getting a baby, does she want to know if it is a boy or a girl, and if he/she is abnormal or totally healthy? Or she doesn’t want to know, because she accepts her child anyway. People who chose for the first option will know if their future child is healthy or abnormal/disabled. When the child is healthy they are extremely happy. But what do they do when the child is disabled? An abortion? or do they chose to operate the fetus and take the risk that it will die during the operation? Or accept an disabled child as well? In future it will be a continuous discussion about what is legally allowed and ethical acceptable in genetic engineering.

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[Joep]