What are the ethical and moral issues involved in genetic engineering?
Gene mapping and genetic engineering create some dilemmas. Do people want to know about their genetic defects even though they cannot be corrected? When the issues are genetic screening and abortion, ethical values often clash with practicality and parental rights. Do parents want to bring to term a child that will have a severe disorder? One country has already instituted a policy about such disorders. In 1993, China established a program of abortions, forced sterilization, and marriage bans to avoid new births of “inferior quality” infants and raise the standards of their country. Worries abound that the information housed in people’s genes will be used to their detriment. A drop of blood or a lock of hair contains all of the genetic information a potential employer or insurer would need to determine whether someone is at risk of contracting any of a long list of debilitating diseases. Ethical dilemmas will increase in the next decade as scientists on the Human Genome Project continu
