New Eugenics - Less Accepting World

Kerr’s “Eugenics and the New Genetics in Britain: Examining Contemporary Professionals’ Accounts”, necessarily exposes issues of new genetics that may affect our future. Personally, reading this not only shocked me, but really scared me as well! Although I have heard about finding developments in science to eliminate diseases, I never before heard of that entailing the abortion of a fetus. It’s a confusing issue because although I do support Pro-chocie, I feel in this case it would be taking it to an extreme. Interestingly enough, Kerr quotes many scientists that seem to be talking in circles. They try to reiterate that new genetics is nothing like eugenics, but they also reveal how easily it can become eugenics. As Kerr point out (as well as some of the scientists themselves), most diseases are both behavioral and natural. How will individuals be able to determine when a fetus should be rightly aborted or not? And for what purpose? Would the purpose be just to make the lives of a family easier? Interviewee #22 discusses the issue of homosexuality. Kerr explains that in this instance “homosexuality was viewed as at least in part a result of genetic abnormality. The interviewee also suggested the possibility of intervention to correct homosexuality by hormonal manipulation” (182). This is outrageous! It is utterly inhumane to interfere witho an individual’s sexuality (and more so outrageous even before they are born!). With fetal genetic manipulation people will play both parent and god to their unborn children. If this becomes an option, parents will become the deciding factor of the lives of unborn individuals in an increasingly less accepting world. The scientist say that it will be a completely individual choice but as Kerr points out “Individual clients of genetic testing may make the ultimate decision concerning their participation, but these decisions are embedded in a complex array of familial, cultural, economic and social experiences and pressures (192). Individuals will be making choices, but based on a larger societal influence. This could become extremely out of hand. Although ideally, it would be great to prevent diseases, but realistically this is a very dangerous route to take. I think the best course of action would be to take the information of the fetus for potential diseases and in the future each person can be educated on how to live a healthy lifestyle to prevent the diseases they are at risk for. In other cases, such as Down Syndrome, the fetus should not be aborted! These individuals have as much right to live as you or I do. If new genetics were to become traditional, we as a society would only become more discriminatory instead of progressing towards a better future.