Cluster Assignment: Designer Babies: One Step Closer by Samuel Hensley

1. What is the basis for the controversy behind PGD embryo screening? Do you agree or disagree that the procedure should be illegal? Why?
1. The controversy is twofold as I see it; creating embryos for the PGD process which will either be used or discarded.  Discarding is unethical for this author.  I do not believe the procedure should be illegal, I do not believe it is a loss of life for an embryo to be discarded. 
2. According to Hensley, the British find it unethical that human life be created for the purpose of benefiting others. How valid is this view, in your opinion?
1. As far as creating a sibling for the sole purpose of helping another. I do not believe that is the case.  What is the harm in creating another child (that is most likely wanted anyway) that would be loved? As long as it is causing no harm to the savior sibling.
3. Do you agree with the President’s Council of bioethics that “with genetic screening, procreation begins to take on certain aspects of…manufacture”? Explain your reasoning.
1. No I do not agree.  We as humans select our mate based on standards. Some theorists believe that it is biologically based and we are not even aware of it.  We use this selection process to weed out perceived defects. Nature had a way of culling, ‘the strong will survive’ and their genes would carry forward; in this day and age when we use science to conceive children that might not have been conceived if it were not for science.    Where is the line drawn?  As a society we need to use science and facts to find that line not religion.