Genetic Design

Designer Deaf Babies?

By no means am I a geneticist, or an expert in genetics, chemical biology or anything of the sort. But social commentary? I'm certainly qualified to voice my opinions. Somewhat recently (late December 07), the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID) of the UK issued a statement that deaf parents should have the right to demand screening of their embryos so they can choose a deaf child over one that has all its sense intact.

Can you say WTF? The argument they are making is that some deaf parents may want to "create" and choose their child, based on a disability. Why? So that the child would better "fit in the family lifestyle". I don't know about you, but this seems backwards. Isn't it the job of the parents to give their children every chance, every advantage that they can afford, and every edge possible to succeed in life? This would be analogous to amputating your child's limbs just so it fit in with amputee parents. What reasonable, or sane parent would want to do that?

The parents themselves are lucky to be alive. They should have, by Darwin's theory of natural selection, been eliminated long ago. They're just lucky that the human race is one that pities those with disabilities, rather than killing and eating them. So why force your child into a life of disability? You've got to be one sadistic individual to want to do this to your child. It is every person's right to live life to the fullest, and to deprive a person of that right even before birth is just wrong.

But that's not the only thing. Even if the couple were able to conceive naturally, in order to go through the embryonic screening process they are required to go through in vitro fertilization. Yes, your child will be a "test-tube baby". It is one thing for a couple who is physically unable to conceive to defy the law of life and unnaturally create children. But individuals who would take advantage of a science created to help people (who by all means should not be conceiving anyways), in order to forcefully disable their children, are flat out sadistic and demented.

The whole concept of "designer babies" has been around for years. But this is the first time I've seen it discussed in a completely reversed nature. Usually you'll find parents who want to choose an embryo devoid of genetic defects in order to give their child the greatest chance of success in life, much like in the movie Gattaca. But to do the opposite?

There are those who argue that the deaf community has gone so far as to convince themselves that being deaf isn't a disability that they've started to view it as just another personal trait. And while these people are deluded, their need to feel better about their disabilities is justifiable. However, to force your children into such a life...I find no moral justification for that.

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