Further, if genetic testing of fetuses and psychological profiling of prospective parents could determine whether a child would be smart/attractive/sociable/ethical, successful in school, at work, and as a member of society, would this potentially contribute to more abortions? Will there come a time in a futuristic tableau in which world governments not only regulate how many children are allowed per family (i.e., China’s One-Child Policy) but also have the power to eliminate any in vitro that have been determined to carry defective and/or undesirable genes?
The outcome of virtually any pregnancy is a guessing game, and we’re not just talking about gender, dominant and recessive genes affecting eye color, or the likelihood of producing twins. In the 21st century, it’s easy to take for granted that prenatal exams, ultrasounds and amniotic fluids (called polyhydramnios) can identify maternal diabetes, multiple gestation, genetic disorders and fetal malformations. In concert with a review of family disease histories, environmental toxins, diet, body weight and drug/alcohol use, today’s physicians can predict with a certain level of accuracy whether there are risks that might impact the delivery of a healthy baby and its subsequent development into a fully functioning human being.
Such advances, however, were not present in earlier eras, nor were there remedies at the time for devastating illnesses that could attack the immune system of a family’s youngest members. Among the most famous of such cases was that of Arthur and Katherine Keller who welcomed a little girl named Helen into the world in 1880. Helen was born perfectly healthy with all of her senses intact and even began talking by the age of six months. A year later, she was rendered blind and deaf from what modern experts believe was meningitis or scarlet fever. Had her parents known the multiplicity of emotional and financial challenges that raising a child who might forever be dependent on others for her most basic needs, might they have been hesitant to bring her into the world to begin with?
That it would have been a tremendous loss to future generations to be deprived of Helen Keller’s inspiration, courage and positive example to others goes without saying. Yet when faced with so devastating a crisis as a child they are personally powerless to make whole, how many people honestly believe they could sustain a Pollyanna optimism and convince themselves that this tragedy was all somehow a “good” thing?
