Screening for genetic diseases : what are the moral constraints?

Abstract

Now that the Human Genome Project (HGP) is an ongoing and rapidly progressing reality, and human genetic engineering is expected to become standard procedure, the inevitable question is how these procedures will be applied. The inevitable and much debated answer is eugenics. It is often looked upon as positive eugenics, directed perhaps, towards achieving human beings endowed with optimal characteristics of physical strength and beauty, intellectual genius and longevity. There is of course the immense and probably insoluble problem of determining which human characteristics, among nature's rich and superb diversity, can be improved and what constitutes the hypothetical physical and intellectual excellence that one might envisage and enhance. There is no doubt that the most important applications of powerful genetic technology have been in the field of genetic diagnosis, and treatment using genetic engineering is well on the way to new applications. These are the tremendous contributions of medical genetics to the control of human disease. There is no doubt that this ideal leads the list of eugenic priorities. Genetic testing is only one small but essential step toward achieving these priorities.