Ethical Issues Summary

In the article “Proposed Treatment to Fix Genetic Diseases Raises Ethical Issues,” written by Rob Stein, the author’s point of view on genetic testing is that although genetic testing can solve one issue, it can generate many other ethical concerns. In other words, Rob Stein mainly shows disapproval to altering DNA, by using pathos, ethos, and logos. He supports his point of view by using mainly pathos to generate concerns. By using questions like “Who am I? Am I a human being like other human beings…? Am I some type of new creature?” (qtd. in Stein 2), the author generates fear that the resulting child may have difficulties identifying himself/herself, an ethical issue. The reason this is an ethical issue is that it points out how we should decide if we want to take the risk that the

The concern is that we should rethink if we still want to perform this technique even though we are not sure if it is safe. Another use of pathos is when the author creates worry by stating that “scientist may inadvertently introduce mistakes into the human genetic code” (Stein 2). Here, the problem is that these mistakes, if the offspring is a girl, will be passed on through the family line. Rob Stein does not include possible consequences of an error, so we must decide if it is still ethical to follow on with the procedure without knowing what problems can occur. One last use of pathos is when the author states that genetic testing can create designer babies which creates emotions of dubiety (Stein 3). If we were to do this, we would eliminate the uniqueness of people. Because of this technique, parents could create babies with the most popular characteristics resulting in very similar people. The ethical issue is that we should leave the development and the characteristics of an embryo to