Is PGD ethical?

This hit the papers a few weeks ago. Thailand is offering Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis to couples. Already couples from Australia, India and China are flocking to these fertility centers to select the gender of their child. While this can also help to make sure that the embryos will not develop with gene disorders or chromosomal abnormalities, it is gaining popularity mainly for the purpose of sex selection.

Naturally, this has sparked off ethical debates all over the world. Will this skew the sex ratio, especially in countries like India where boys are preferred to girls if this technique becomes more viable in the future? Some say that this is only a step away from genetic modification of other characteristics like intelligence, colouring and stature to get 'designer babies'.

Also, the destruction of many fertilized embryos is seen as something akin to murder but there is no unanimous answer for that. As in the case of abortions, circumstances and health play an important part.

Should we ignore natural selection and take it a step further to 'design' our children? This reminds me of the book 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley where people are manufactured and conditioned to perform specific tasks and hold specific positions in society. In the end, I believe that this will only lead to the imposition of restrictions on children even before they are born. We are all entitled to our individuality.

I am all in favour of using this technique when there is a strong chance that the child might be born with diseases or disabilities. But the implications of PGD could go deeper than we know. It has a vast scope for healing and for exploitation which is why I believe that there should be laws in place to prevent the misuse of something which could be a boon to medical science.

This is a funny comic I found on the web but you have to admit it strikes a chord.