Government Dysgenics in Britain

The perils of allowing a government to interfere in a family's reproductive decisions is perfectly exemplified in this horrific story in The New Scientist. Britain's creepily named Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority forbade the Whitaker family from using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) as a way to have a healthy child who might be able to help their first child Charlie. Charlie will die from a genetic blood disease unless he receives an appropriate transplant.

Desperate, the parents came to the United States where PGD is still legal. The hope is that the umbilical cord stem cells from Charlie's newborn sibling James will be immunologically compatible. If so the stem cells can be transplanted as a way to cure Charlie of his disease. Please note that taking stem cells from James' umbilicus in no way endangers or harms him.

Unfortunately, there are many influential voices like Frank Fukuyama in the United States that think that Britain's HFEA is a great model for regulating and reining in biogenetic medical advancements. Frighteningly enough, as the Whitaker case shows, they know what they're talking about.

Comments

[Warren]

Fucking Luddites

[Jim Walsh]

How ironic that so many of the folks who oppose these procedures think of themselves as "pro-life"...

[SM]

Ditto, to the first comment. Never pass up an oppurtunity to say something, anything nasty about the Fukuyama/Kass crowd. Especially Fukuyama, with his pretense of having discovered some mysterious essence which makes us human. Does prejudice against a non-existent, "posthuman" race count as xenophobia ?

[Hank]

Its our "Purity of Essence", our bodily fluids. Stop the fluoridation of water!

[Warren]

"...the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature."

[xit1254]

"... creepily named Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority..." - Whoa! Creepy indeed. Of course the Nazis believed that what they were doing was in the best interest of humanity, too! Truly pathetic.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Is Fukuyama some kind of weird acronym for something?

[Madog]

Douglas,

No it's just a Japanese name. Maybe we could make up an acronym for it though.

[Plutarck]

I am the only one who, after thinking about it, came up with the entirely vulgar and crude fuk-u-mama - right?

[Thomas]

"The procedure would be "unlawful and unethical", said the HFEA, because it involved some risk to the embryo but the only benefit would be to Charlie."

This is really just Bailey being Bailey, insisting that one can do whatever one wants with another human being, so long as that human being is unborn.

[Warren]

Thomas,
So would you also be against a transplanting a kidney from one child to save the life of his sibling? Since that too involves risk to the donor. Or do you protect human beings only as long as those human beings are unborn?

[Thomas]

I would be against such a transplant. What about you, Warren? Do you favor individual rights only for adults, or do children count too? Would you let a child's parents consent to any procedure that benefitted the child's siblings, without regard to the risks to the child and the benefits to the sibling?

Of course, I've won the argument if you'll draw the line any differently than you do for the unborn, whether it's the line I'd draw or not.

[SM]

What is it with this "unborn" voodoo ?

[Andy]

We have a program here in the UK called Question Time where notable people and politicians can be quizzed by members of the audience on their personal views. All those on the panel said they would do exactly the same for their own child [go to the USA for treatment], but agreed that banning the process in the UK was the right thing to do. These people are idiots!

And the lawmakers...

[kingsley obialor]

I want to donet one kidney

[kingsley obialor]

I want to donet one kidney

[Olivo Raquel]

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DATE: 01/21/2004 08:09:06
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