ethics and medical technology

[denali]

Have we gone to far? Just because they could do this should they have done it? I don't think so.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Well, to save thier kid they had another (which they wanted); however the catch was they had to do it in a lab rather than a bed. Noone was hurt, no baby was left for dead, noone recieved something they didn't want.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< Just because they could do this should they have done it? I don't think so. >>

Firstoff, you are not them. Secondoff, to me it looked OK anyway, &quot;Doctors collected cells from his umbilical cord, a painless procedure, and on Sept. 26 infused them into his sister Molly's circulatory system&quot;. What wrong with that?

 

[abracadabra1]

if we can do it...hell at least try it!

 

[denali]

I guess my main objection is that you could say I want a child that has certain genetic traits and if the embryo does not have those traits we'll terminate the pregnancy. Also I'm interested to see who paid for all of these procedures.

 

[JellyBaby]

Selective genetics are something we must decide on as a group. I thought there was some recent legistlation that prevented human cloning?? As for payment, yeah I wonder if your average health plans would cover any part of a procedure like that. My bet is that the family was wealthy and had the means to do it -- that plus the hospital/doctors were probably quite eager to try the operation.

 

[ATLien247]

Has humankind decided on the point at which life begins yet? Personally, I think it begins at fertilization. If you were to continue along that path of logic, it would mean, in Denali's example, that they were terminating all of those embryos solely because they were not what was wanted. Ethical? Perhaps not.