Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Posts: 528 Location: , Lost in Oz.
Cosmetic Abortions ... an Ugly Science Posted: 05-21-07 21:15pm
In England, it now seems, a baby can be
aborted for not being pretty enough. Maybe
this was inevitable as genetic screening
and techniques such as ultrasound
advanced.
The London Daily Telegraph Web site
reports that the Human Fertilization and
Embryology Authority (HFEA) has licensed a
fertility clinic to screen embryos for a
genetic defect that causes a severe
squint.
A squint? The aborting of babies with
undesired characteristics is hardly new.
In China, where people have a strong
preference for boys, so many female babies
have been aborted that a serious imbalance
between the sexes exists. Babies with
fatal conditions have been aborted. We now
seem to have invented cosmetic abortion.
The man to whom the license was granted,
professor Gedis Grudzinskas, was asked
whether he would screen babies for hair
color. He replied that hair color "can be
a cause of bullying, which can lead to
suicide. With the agreement of the HFEA, I
would do it."
Joined: 19 Aug 2006 Posts: 3795 Location: Merrie Englande, UK
Thanks: 87
Thanked:71
Posted: 05-22-07 10:51am
Good god that's just awful...but to be
expected. If it's possible to do then
humans will do it, to hell with the
consequences.
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jenn_smithson
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Nov 2004 Posts: 808 Location: Texas
Posted: 05-28-07 14:27pm
PurestGreen
wrote:
Good god that's just
awful...but to be expected. If it's
possible to do then humans will do it, to
hell with the
consequences.
As to the article, a "squint" is also
known as strabismus, otherwise known as
cross-eyed, wall-eyed, or lazy-eyed.
This, like other diseases, can be mild or
severe. Treatment options vary from a
simple eyepatch to major
reconstructive surgery and in some
cases cannot be reversed.
I know that it makes people uneasy to
think about testing and aborting for
defects but you need to put it into the
proper context. The same right that gives
a woman the ability to obtain an abortion
for severe defects is the same right that
gives another woman the ability to obtain
an abortion for mild, or easily corrected,
defects. You cannot begin setting limits
for one or specifying how severe a
defect must be before she is allowed to
exercise her rights without putting the
right itself in jeopardy.
Basically, if you start deciding for women
who can and cannot obtain an abortion,
then eventually the women who need an abortion won't
be able to access them.
