What are the advantages and disadvantages of advance knowledge of a child's birth defect for prospective paren

Question

Is the availability of genetic testing more positive or negative for our society?

Answer 1

Disadvantage

1. They may decide on abortion or adoption, rather than waiting to see if they grow to love the baby, and thus end up wishing to rise to the challenge of caring for it.

2. Perhaps some of the wonder and beauty of expecting a baby is gone forever, now that it is seen as a set of tests to conduct for health and normality.

3. By screening for birth defects, we have put our own will and preferences ahead of both natural selection, and any version of divine will. Thus, we have decided that what we want is better/more important than either nature or God. I would call this a possible disadvantage because evolution (whether any divine will is behind it or not) has made our ascendency possible. It is the reason we are here, in our present form.

But what will we become, when only our will decides what is selected for, or selected against?

Advantages:

1. Raising a child with birth defects is difficult. Arguably, only parents who go into it willingly are fit to deal with the challenges.

2. One could argue that some birth defects are so bad, it is a mercy to the child not to be born. I do not agree with this argument, but that doesn't invalidate it.

3. Knowing the defect gives the parents more time to accept and prepare to deal with it.

4. Many parents will abort children with defects. This may lower the amount of genetic defects in the collective gene pool, which is good for the specie as a whole. (This is eugenics argument. Not politically proper. It is now rejected by virtually all civilized peoples. But the rejection of a philosophic argument by most people does not in itself invalidate the argument).

5. The best thing is for parents to know before hand. If they are unprepared for the challenge, there are plenty of adoptive parents who are stronger, or more mature, or more compassionate, more loving, less selfish, however you want to look at it. They will be far more fit to parent the child, and thus the child will be better off for the tests having been done.

That last answer, because it addresses itself mainly to the CHILD's welfare, is the main reason I think it is better to have the tests than to not have them.

Answer 2

i think it is a positive. it gives parents time to learn about the defect, explore options to deal with or repair the defect, like fetal surgery, and be better prepared when the baby is born.

the only disadvantage i can think of would be possible stress and worry, but without prior knowledge, that would occur with the discovery of the defect at the time of the baby's birth anyway.