Genetic Grim Reaper culls the unborn

Procedures allow parents to determine if their unborn child meets their 'specifications'

By LEA SEVCIK
Special to the WCR

Overshadowed by the federal election, another important debate is underway in Canada. Health Canada has asked for public input on the extent to which genetic screening of embryos should be allowed in Canada.

The resulting regulations will have important implications for public morality and for the shape of our society.

Several children have already been born in Canada using genetic screening, although we currently have no standards or professional guidelines for this practice. Not that standards will help, unless the practice is banned altogether.

'Perfect embryo'

Genetic screening is inherently eugenic because it aims for selection of the most genetically perfect embryos while weeding out those that are deemed undesirable. It promises to change the way we view the worth of children and human beings in general.

Genetic screening involves the production of several embryos in petri dishes and the testing of their DNA for a range of traits.

Those with the "best" genes are chosen for implantation into the woman, while the rest are frozen, thrown away or used for research.

Embryos can be screened for genetic diseases like anencephaly, where the child is born with a small or missing brain, but also for spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and Down's syndrome. Screening is available for Alzheimer's and for Huntington's, which claimed the life of poet and songwriter Woody Guthrie at age 55.

Embryos can also be tested for predisposition towards cancers such as retinoblastoma, which took the sight of Canadian singer Jeff Healey.

Scientists can also screen for sex and blood type, and determine if the embryo's tissue will match a sibling in need of a transplant.

The apparent point of all this screening is to prevent the birth of children whose lives have been judged to be of low quality, and who would be an unjustified burden on their parents and on society.

Never mind the words of Catherine Frazee, a severely disabled Canadian writer and educator, who has said of the disabled: "Let us affirm that our lives - however much pain, however much struggle - our lives are worth living.

"Taking our lives to spare us our pain and our struggle is a crime."

Never mind also the fact that genetic screening will transform the way parents view their children. Unconditional love will give way to viewing children as another personalized product made to fulfill parental desires.

Parents may even be called irresponsible unless they have children that fit societal norms of health, appearance and ability.

Even Dr. Robert Edwards, who helped create the first test-tube baby, has said, "Soon it will be a sin for parents to have a child who carries the heavy burden of genetic disease.

"We are entering a world where we have to consider the quality of our children."

Finally, never mind that only the wealthy will be able to afford the genetic customization of their children, which totals thousands of dollars. It is the poor who will bear the burden of raising disabled and otherwise "unwanted" children.

Without a ban on the use of genetic screening, the futuristic movie Gattaca is a fitting warning of what we may be in for. It shows a world where naturally conceived children are called "degenerates" and are resigned to the lowest jobs in society.

Only the 'desired ones'

Meanwhile, those who have been genetically screened for the most desirable characteristics run the world.

It may come as no surprise that Germany - well experienced with eugenics - has entirely prohibited genetic screening. So has Italy.

Let Canada be the third country to stand up for the worth and dignity of every human life.

(Lea Sevcik is assistant director of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family.)

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