Isn't PGD a form of eugenics creating a
master race this is a really complicated
and i think fascinating and important question
that people need to be need to be debating
because on the one hand yes
PGD is a very high-powered technology
that would enable
us
as a whole to begin to select the genetic
characteristics
of our offspring
and that understandably makes people really scared
I think we should be scared I think we should be by
the same token there's there is
a critical difference that eugenics was about
the state deciding
that these kinds of people shall not be born
what we have with PGD
is what some people have called positive eugenics
that it would be the parents
deciding not to produce a child with certain
characteristics
but it's it's the classic slippery slope and what I
what my view is very strongly
is we can't afford to sort of tuck this
technology under the rug because it's not
going to go away the demand is out there
and we need to think about this this proverbial
slippery slope and think where we want to draw
lines because i think we can draw lines we
can say and this is what some governments
including the british are doing they're saying 
you can use PGD
to prevent against giving birth to a child
who was going to die 
in other words you're guarding
you're allowing it to guard against
things right but you're not allowing people to select
select for things
so for example again it's quite interesting
here in the united kingdom
you cannot use PGD to select gender in the united
states because we have no law
there's in fact quite an active commercial market
in gender selection
this excerpt is brought to you by the massachusetts
school of law
