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John Moonstroller

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Should couples contemplating marriage use genetic testing to determine if they should have children?

It is a well known fact these days that some diseases are inherited by offspring from their parents. We know that some of us cannot take certain medications because our bodies lack the lock/key mechanism to use the medicine. Genetic research has created tools to screen couples to see if their marriage has the prospect of having healthy children.

One of the cheapest way to solve most of our problems associated with overpopulation would be voluntarily self sterilization. If a genetic test indicated a high probability that our offspring would be deformed, have early heart problems or any number of health conditions that would preclude their children from having a healthy life should voluntary sterilization be an option?

If such a social practice were to become a social trend, how might this impact society as a whole? What organizations might work, energetically, to destroy such a social trend?

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    Yuguo Zhang 100+

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    Sep 15 2012: I still remember in high school biology class when we learned about genetics, we did a lot of practice problems associated with recessive and dominant gene and all the cross-genetic stuff, like predicting what color eyes of a couple's kids will have and calculating the probability. My friends and I used to joke a lot about "Who the hack will calculate those factors before they want to have a kid? Who cares when a married couple just want to have a child?"

    This new technology could be a useful guide to people whose ancestors possess some kind of genetic disorders like tay-sachs or galactosemia(as we know recessive disorders tend to appear across generation.) so that they'll have a grasp what might happen to their offspring.

    But to me I don't hope the technology will have any impact on people's values of dating and relationship, especially those at a early stage. We shouldn't entangle some genetic traits with our genuine emotions after all, and only for those who seriously consider settling down can take a pragmatic approach to test themselves.
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      John Moonstroller 20+

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      Sep 15 2012: Excellent advice Hugo. Thank you. Would you say that genetics is something your generation will be interested in in the future? I haven't asked the question but do you think that teenagers should be allowed have access to genetic testing if they want to know more about their bodies?

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