Let's meet Mark and Nora (Figure 1). They got married five years ago and they're ready to have a baby. They've been trying for 2 years now and nothing has happened. They decided to go to the doctors and they tell Nora that she can't have children because she is infertile, meaning her body is incapable of carrying a child. This made Nora and Mark depressed and they decided to do some research on any possibility of having their own baby. They came across Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
, and
learned it can be used to help infertile women get pregnant easier and you can
design the baby if you wanted to (2).
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| Figure 1 |
The potential possibility of having a baby of their own excited them both. They decided to see a specialist and were
told that Preimplantation is a possibility to try if they want to, though it’s
very expensive. They learn it is possible to choose what the baby will look
like and maybe even the potential personality when the baby is older (1). So Nora and Mark
decided that they wanted a baby girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. The doctor
happily told them that they could have that since they had the genes or traits. In order to have the baby be designed to what you want it to look
like, you need to know if you could have that naturally (1). For example, the
possibility of Mark and Nora having a blonde hair, blue eyed baby girl was
possible because as the parents, they already had that trait. The doctor told
them that they could choose to have the baby be intelligent or athletic, but Mark and Nora
didn’t want to feel that the baby’s life was planned for her. Some people feel
choosing a type of personality makes the baby seem more planned and prepared
into someone the parents want them to be (3). Mark and Nora think a person is who they
are based on their experiences.
Nora
gets put on medicine to suppress her menstrual cycle; the specialist collects Mark's sperm and Nora's eggs to put into a culture or test for the fluids (2). The specialist looks for the genes that Nora and Mark requested and put them in a culture to form together. The next week, she goes
to the hospital and they inject the culture she designed. After the injection, the doctors tell her to be patient and take care of herself by lightly exercising, eating healthy and taking vitamins. A month or so goes by and Nora has to see the ultrasound technician. They are in charge of showing Nora specific features of the baby, such as: heartbeat, size/development and any problems that may be occurring. Nora is informed that the baby girl is developing and doing good.
As
time progresses Nora starts to get bigger,
which is good because it shows that the baby is forming and growing inside her more (Figure 2). Some
of Mark and Nora’s friends have mixed feelings about the baby. Some feel happy
that the procedure helped to get the baby they wanted, but others felt that
they should’ve continued to try or just adopt. In the end Mark and Nora were happy they got a healthy baby girl.
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| Figure 2 |
(1) Bourne, H.,
Douglas, T., & Savulescu, J. (2012). Procreative beneficence and in vitro gametogenesis. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
(2) Preimplantation
Genetic Diagnosis (Embryo Screening). (2015) Penn Fertility Care, Penn Medicine.
Retrieved from http://www.pennmedicine.org/fertility/patient/clinical-services/pgd-preimplantation- genetic-diagnosis/
(3) Wilkinson, S. (2006). Eugenics, embryo selection, and the Equal Value
Principle. Clinical Ethics. (1) 46-51. doi:
10.1258/147775006776173408
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