‘Designer’ babies with made-to-order defects?

[mickeyfan2]

I would not do this either to get a defect or a perfect child. I prefer to let nature do the picking.

 

[LotsOfQuestions]

The ONLY (and i am saying this VERY figuratively) reason that i can see a dwarf wanting a child who was a dwarf would simply be physics: Can you imagine trying to carry a 30 lb. toddler when you are only a little larger? At 2 a toddler cannot be trusted to walk everywhere on their own, but it might be physically challenging for a little person to do what we do without thinking: pick the kid up. IT would also get difficult for said parent to restrain a child who is out of control as all kids are at some point or another. In blended marriages, where one parent is "normal" (i hate saying that) this would be less of an issue, but if both parents are little people then i could see a real and genuine concern.
However the person in the article has said none of those reasons.I find her reasoning a little elitist and frightening.

I would like to see Little People/Big World touch on the difficulties that Matt and Amy might or might not have had with their three average height children as babies and toddlers. FWIW, I think the Roloff kids all look like their parents, just not in height.

 

[dementia412]

Anyone who would do that is NOT a parent. Any doctor who does that should have their license revoked. I find anyone trying to make a "perfect" kid sickening, but to force an impairment on the child is evil. Most dwarf or hearing impaired parents would never fream of doing that to their child because they know how difficult and isolated life can be for someone with a disabilty.
Selfishness, that's what it's all about.

 

[mrsltg]

I know very little about the dwarf community, but I do know that the deaf community has a rich history and strong culture. I'm not sure I could support a couple choosing if their child was deaf or hearing, but I don't think I could look down upon someone who does. What's to prevent a couple with a "disability" from selecting a child that is "normal," within their parent's community that child would be different, but no one in the mainstream world would look down upon them then.

Choosing for your child to be missing one of it's five senses is absurd. I've heard the "deaf culture" and I think it's great - for deaf people. But to assume it's somehow better to remove the ability to hear to be able to participate in this "culture" is ridiculous. Not being able to hear is dangerous. Human senses are in place for a reason.

 

[cardaway]

I would not do this either to get a defect or a perfect child. I prefer to let nature do the picking.

Why not a perfect one? If we can get to the point where we can insure there will not be babies born without genetic defects, why not do just that? Why should we allow kids to be born with terrible things that could have been prevented?

BTW: I'm not talking making sure they are a boy, or have blonde hair, I'm talking about eliminating some birth defects.

 

[mrsltg]

Why not a perfect one? If we can get to the point where we can insure there will not be babies born without genetic defects, why not do just that? Why should we allow kids to be born with terrible things that could have been prevented?

BTW: I'm not talking making sure they are a boy, or have blonde hair, I'm talking about eliminating some birth defects.

I don't think it could be done short of aborting all "imperfect" fetuses. Some things go wrong during development regardless of whether or not everything was fine to begin with.

 

[brasswillow]

Not being able to hear is dangerous.

Why is it dangerous?

Some people believe they have a sixth sense, does that mean that people who don’t are disabled. Or if your sense of smell is weak, or, as mentioned in the article, you need glasses, is that dangerous, is there something wrong with you?

There is a standard of “normal” that doesn’t leave room for the differences that people have.

 

[mrsltg]

Why is it dangerous?

Some people believe they have a sixth sense, does that mean that people who don’t are disabled. Or if your sense of smell is weak, or, as mentioned in the article, you need glasses, is that dangerous, is there something wrong with you?

There is a standard of “normal” that doesn’t leave room for the differences that people have.

Let's see the ability to hear a fire alarm, an intruder in your home, a crying baby, a car behind you, a person coming behind you, inability to communicate a problem to a policeman or fireman or doctor, the list goes on and on. Your sense of taste is not nearly as important as your ability to hear, feel, and see. Needing to wear glasses is a correction of a disability - not wearing the needed glasses would be dangerous.

Normal is having five senses. There is a standard. It's not necessarily bad to be abnormal and clearly people find ways of coping with various abnormalities, but they are abnormalities.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Why not a perfect one? If we can get to the point where we can insure there will not be babies born without genetic defects, why not do just that? Why should we allow kids to be born with terrible things that could have been prevented?

BTW: I'm not talking making sure they are a boy, or have blonde hair, I'm talking about eliminating some birth defects.

If I had the ability of passing on a know birth defect I would just choose to adopt. I would not abort an "imperfect" baby. So for me nature is the only way.

What imperfections should we allow? I wear glasses but function fine all day long. Should only babies with perfect eye sight be allowed to be born?

 

[rhiannonwales]

Normal is having five senses. There is a standard. It's not necessarily bad to be abnormal and clearly people find ways of coping with various abnormalities, but they are abnormalities.

How do you know that for sure? You don't.People assume that humanity is in its permanent state, but who's to say that we arent still evolving?

Let's see the ability to hear a fire alarm, an intruder in your home, a crying baby, a car behind you, a person coming behind you, inability to communicate a problem to a policeman or fireman or doctor, the list goes on and on.

Have you ever known a hearing impaired person? They can feel the vibrations that are so small we tend to ignore them - they probably could sense a lot of the things you mention. And being a hearing person is no guarantee that we would hear any of those things - if your radio is too loud, or a truck passes by you might miss any of those things. I think that no one should say that they represent "normality" since normality is a subjective thing. What is normal to you is completley alien to someone else with different experiences.

 

[rhiannonwales]

If I had the ability of passing on a know birth defect I would just choose to adopt.

Just about every single human being has the ability to pass on some kind of defect.
Should we all live in GATTACA where all couple who want kids should be genetically screened to make sure they are acceptable for reproduction??

 

[brasswillow]

Let's see the ability to hear a fire alarm, an intruder in your home, a crying baby, a car behind you, a person coming behind you, inability to communicate a problem to a policeman or fireman or doctor, the list goes on and on. Your sense of taste is not nearly as important as your ability to hear, feel, and see. Needing to wear glasses is a correction of a disability - not wearing the needed glasses would be dangerous.

Normal is having five senses. There is a standard. It's not necessarily bad to be abnormal and clearly people find ways of coping with various abnormalities, but they are abnormalities.

Deaf homes can be fitted with fire alarms that rather than ringing are a flashing light, there are baby monitors that run on the same idea, when there’s a noise in the baby’s room a light flashes rather than the sound coming across the monitor. How many times have you been intent on a project that you didn’t hear someone come up behind you and you jumped. How many instances of an accident did someone say they just didn’t hear what was going on because either, their mind was somewhere else or they were too far away to hear. When it comes to communicating with emergency personnel many deaf people are able to speak and read lips to get their point across until an interpreter can get there.

 

[cardaway]

I don't think it could be done short of aborting all "imperfect" fetuses. Some things go wrong during development regardless of whether or not everything was fine to begin with.

I think in many cases that is already being done to spare the child a short life that would be full of pain and suffering. Why not increase the number that would not be aborted because we would have prevented the things that could have caused the parents to choose abortion?

 

[mickeyfan2]

Just about every single human being has the ability to pass on some kind of defect.
Should we all live in GATTACA where all couple who want kids should be genetically screened to make sure they are acceptable for reproduction??

I am talking about ones that would severly hurt the child's life for ability to become an adult. Having a kid born who would wear glasses is not a problem, but having the ability to pass on a gene to have s child born with a defect that will end their life by 3 (for example) would prevent me from having a child.

I am free to have my own opinions. Why is that so hard to understand?

 

[rhiannonwales]

You are certainly entitled to have your own opinion.I am merely debating the issue... if you didnt want to have debat then why post an opinion at all?

 

[cardaway]

What imperfections should we allow? I wear glasses but function fine all day long. Should only babies with perfect eye sight be allowed to be born?

I tried to be clear that I'm talking about serious birth defects, not simple issues with standard corrections like 20/20 vision.

It's likely that at least some of the research being done to cure birth defects will result in gene therapy. If people feel that we shouldn't go that route, should those scientists stop right now and put the time and money towards something else? I'm no expert, but I have to believe that is the only way we can get rid of some of the worst birth defects.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

It's very selfish and I think based partly on fear. I'm thinking that little people and deaf people want to keep their offspring "closer" and this is how they see the best way of accomplishing that. I think they may also be afraid of their children developing interests that they can't participate in. I just can't imagine choosing to take something like the ability to hear away from your child. Why would they not want their child to experience the sound of the ocean, bird's singing, their loved ones voice, etc?? Also, do they consider how this impacts their future ability to have a loving relationship and family of their own some day?? Matt, on Little People Big World, seems almost obsessed with Zach finding a girlfriend at the little people conventions because he is aware how limited his choices are. Can you imagine a blind couple choosing to rob their child of the ability to see??

 

[Disney4Drew]

There are no words....

 

[rhiannonwales]

I wouldnt make the choice to do such a thing but at the same time, i can't condemn another person whose life experiences and culture are different than mine. We tend to see our own beliefs as the right way and non conformists as wrong, but its neither, its simply a different way of life. Had our life experiences been different we might see things in a different way.
Personally, i think that gene therapy IS wrong. As upsetting and disturbing as it is, nature has a way of handling things and i don't think we as humans should interfere with that.But at the same time, my view is my view and i would never presume to say that it was the correct view.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

While I wouldn't want to genetically engineer a child to have a specific defect, I would want to make sure that the child I'm going to have is male. That's it. Anything else--height,weight, hair/eye color--doesn't matter. I have known for quite a while now that I do not want girls and I'm kind of at the point where if the dr cannot guarentee I'm going to have another boy, I don't think I want another child.

There is nothing wrong with having girls. Have all the girls you want, if that's what you want. I just do not want them. And there is nothing wrong with that.



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