Reference no: EM132170013

Question: 1. Support your conclusions with evidence and specific examples from the textbook, as well as other sources as needed.

2. Your reflection must be at least 250 words in length and follow APA (6th ed.) formatting and citation guidelines as appropriate.

Which side do you feel is the most ethical and why?

Concerns have been raised recently that the strides the specialists are making in prenatal genetic testing are leading us down the path of eugenics.

Eugenics, of course, is the theory and practice of human improvement by way of genetic manipulation to produce desired traits in a child. If history is any indication, there is cause for alarm where ethics issues and eugenics are concerned.

Today we are talking specifically about a blood test used to screen for Down Syndrome during the first trimester pregnancy. The genetic test in question gives us the ability to identify Down syndrome in the womb without causing any harm to the fetus through the use of a simple blood test. Some agree that this information in advance means parents have more options in general, and an opportunity to raise a health child, while others argue that by promoting this test, we are stepping into a grey area where we are engineering human improvement based on a subjective evaluation of what is a "better" human being which is morally wrong. Besides that, because Down Syndrome has no cure, the "opportunity to raise a healthier child" implies aborting a child after a positive blood test.