In Support of Designer Babies in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

In Support of Designer Babies in China - Essay Example This instance involved a shift in population policy away from Leninist family planning policy to softer neo-liberal methods, which involved indirect regulation by the state and self-regulation by citizens. Starting in 1956, the Ministry of Public Health oversaw a yearlong campaign for the use of birth control. However, these efforts portended minimal effects on fertility rates and the period following Great Leap Years saw a rapid population increase (Hesketh 12), which eventually necessitated the One Child Policy as a way to counter population growth. However, this policy has led ethical and moral dilemmas concerning gender and physical selection by parents who only have one try at parenthood. Out of the remaining alternatives for the Chinese government, genetic selection is the best choice to reduce control population, while solving the problem of sex-selection abortion and inherited diseases.One of the most visible effects of China’s One Child Policy is that parents have tur ned to sex-selected abortions in their search for boys, rather than girls. Various surveys carried out within China paint a grim situation with 117 boys born to every 100 girls because of sex selection abortions (Hesketh 62), while normal births resulted in a ratio of 105:100. Other surveys have found that Chinese women who migrated to Beijing in the last two decades arrived with only one hundred girls compared to one hundred and fifty nine boys. This shows that males are favored to girls in China, which has resulted in an increase of sex-selected abortions. However, by using genetic selection, parents would have the ability to choose the sex of their children prior to conception. This would result in a decrease of women influenced by the One Child policy to seek abortions and try again for a boy (Hesketh 63). Although this would not address the looming gender-imbalance in China, it will present women with a more harmless tool in determining the sex of their child. Genetic selection can also allow Chinese parents to have their only child with the characteristics they desire, which would reduce China’s growing population. With the largest growing population in the world, the government of China tried to institute regulations that sought to prevent further growth, causing controversy and general discontent about the laws (Orleans 44). The government and population would benefit from genetic selection in various ways with the government reducing population growth and the parents having their characteristic children. Parents who wish for children with specific heights, skill sets, athletic ability, and personal tendencies would be free to use genetic selection, rather than aborting their infants. Projection of the human genome could provide China and its people the ability to predict their future in terms of population growth and make-up (Orleans 45). Genetic selection will allow for screening out and in specific genes within the mother’s embryo, mak ing it possible to influence the natural characteristics of a child. Finally, gene selection could help China in reducing the number of unhealthy or disabled children. A recent study showed that there was minimal protest at the decision made, in the mid-2000s, to allow couples to test embryos for breast cancer genes and inherited bowel disease, which pushed humanity towards the creation of designer babies with healthy genes (Savulescu 39). Genetic selection will prevent the only child a family in China is allowed to have from having inherited disease. Some of the most common diseases among Chinese children are Down’s syndrome and cystic fibrosis and with genetic selection,

MPH522 - Public Health Law and Policy, Mod 4 Case Assignment Essay

MPH522 - Public Health Law and Policy, Mod 4 Case Assignment - Essay Example He did challenge this decision in several courts but lost and was ruled against by the Supreme Court (Barnes et al, 1993). We will attempt to show that this decision falls under the utilitarian ethics principle. Utilitarian ethics can be defined over all as a decision that is made as the best decision for the most people. The case is a utilitarian ethics case though it also has the element of paternalism which is deontoligic in nature. In this case, it could only be seen that they were making this decision for the greatest good because it was a decision that ruled against the single person and saw the law in the light of a bigger picture. The Supreme Court, in this case made a decision that did not agree with the single employee because it would have led to a loss of the ability to protect future employees from injury that they themselves may not protect themselves against. This is the way public health law works. The public, the law, as well as the courts have had some difficulty in determining what justice is when it comes to a case like this one (Kass, 2001). Does this also protect the company? The answer is of course yes. However, this again is a decision that is made for the largest nu mber, not for the individual. It does not feel right to us because we have a tendency to look for justice in the sense of the single human instead of the group. It is also so easy to see that the company is not only concerned about the employee but that this is a serious illness brewing and if allowed to continue will be a large burden on the resources of the company so in the end the decision is meant to protect the employee, the company and employees of the future. The second part of the Utilitarian principle is that the decision is extrinsic in its features and that the outcomes of the decision were extrinsic in nature. This is certainly true here. This decision will affect