Human Heredity 11th Edition by Michael Cummings

Exercise 18

You are a governmental science policy adviser, and you learn about a new technique being developed that promises to predict IQ accurately based on a particular combination of genetic markers. You also learn that this technique could potentially be applied to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), so parents would be able to select an embryo for implantation that is free of a genetic disorder and one that is likely to be relatively smart. What policy recommendations would you make concerning this technology? Do you think parents should have the right to choose any characteristic of their children, or should PGD be limited to ensuring that embryos are free of genetic disorders? Should guidelines be imposed to regulate this process, or should it be banned?