Genetic Screening Might Kill Disabled Babies

[Michie]

FR. MATTHEW P. SCHNEIDER, LC

Yes, you read that right. Most of you have probably heard about genetic testing on Down Syndrome Children that results in a very high percentage of them being aborted. The US doesn’t keep great statistics on this but the best researchestimated 67% termination rate. In European countries, the termination rate is often over 90%. “Termination rate” here is the medical term: this means a baby is killed in utero after being diagnosed with Down Syndrome. This is a tragedy.


For a while, I’ve been seeing genetic testing drop dramatically in price while research is connecting more and more genes to conditions. We are approaching the terrifying moment that such a practice would move beyond Down Syndrome to other conditions.

I’ve seen this coming for a while. In 2018, I wrote about a company offering to test IVF babies and kill those who were more likely to have a low-IQ. In 2019, I wroteabout a gel that would increase a couple’s chances of having a male baby. In January of this year, I wrote about how Chinese researchers were attempting to screen IVF babies to kill those more likely to develop certain behavioral tendencies.

Now, research by a regional health care system has done a large population study on genetic predispositions and psychological conditions. They found genes in nearly 1% of the population. This may be helpful for adults but we Catholics need to fight any attempt to use this in utero tooth and nail.

I’ll cover the research, then summarize Catholic teaching on this.

Continued below.
Genetic Screening Might Kill Disabled Babies

 

[Xenophon]

FR. MATTHEW P. SCHNEIDER, LC

Yes, you read that right. Most of you have probably heard about genetic testing on Down Syndrome Children that results in a very high percentage of them being aborted. The US doesn’t keep great statistics on this but the best researchestimated 67% termination rate. In European countries, the termination rate is often over 90%. “Termination rate” here is the medical term: this means a baby is killed in utero after being diagnosed with Down Syndrome. This is a tragedy.


For a while, I’ve been seeing genetic testing drop dramatically in price while research is connecting more and more genes to conditions. We are approaching the terrifying moment that such a practice would move beyond Down Syndrome to other conditions.

I’ve seen this coming for a while. In 2018, I wrote about a company offering to test IVF babies and kill those who were more likely to have a low-IQ. In 2019, I wroteabout a gel that would increase a couple’s chances of having a male baby. In January of this year, I wrote about how Chinese researchers were attempting to screen IVF babies to kill those more likely to develop certain behavioral tendencies.

Now, research by a regional health care system has done a large population study on genetic predispositions and psychological conditions. They found genes in nearly 1% of the population. This may be helpful for adults but we Catholics need to fight any attempt to use this in utero tooth and nail.

I’ll cover the research, then summarize Catholic teaching on this.

Continued below.
Genetic Screening Might Kill Disabled Babies

From what I recall studying it, is that when you lump all the genes that give a predisposition for a disorder for all the disorders studied - it only increases the chance of developing a disorder by a maximum of 6%. And that is including Schizophrenia, which has some of the best, most comprehensive, research on genetics.

And despite the absolute ton of money spent on genetic research about these disorders - really, the only application is eugenics. The is very little potential for treatment developments in genetic research. At best, maybe gene therapy or designer drugs - but we're talking about hundreds of genes at play which would suggest implausibility in relation to simply reducing the chance by a few percent and the reality of side-effects.

It's all based on an overly materialist model that discounts almost all environmental causes, whether chemical or societal. In particular, it discounts the reality of abuse and it's effects on people.