(NOTE: Yes, I realize the following post is wildly out of context on my blog. It is a tryout for a paid blogging spot for Babble, a new parenting site with more honesty and humor than any other I’ve seen. Strollerbaby’s list of writers already contain so many online authors I truly admire. Whether you like my audition post below, you should check them out.)
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In a strange case of reverse psychology, embryo screening is allegedly being used to deliberately create babies with a disability, such as deafness or dwarfism.
“You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who’s going to look like me,” a woman with dwarfism said. “It’s just unbelievably presumptuous and they’re playing God.”
I understand and encourage the ideals of many people biologically different than the norm hold that their “disability” should not be considered an imparity. But someone needs to give this lady a quick refresher on middle-school science: any baby originating from her egg is going to look like her. The bigger problem is that she is defining her entire image on her dwarfism.
But let’s not let this one go without examining the bigger picture. I’m always skeptical of the abilities of human nature over Mother Nature. Historically, humanity seems to believe we can re-engineer anything better than letting nature take its course. And it’s worked so well for the forests and oceans so far, hasn’t it? But then perhaps we’ve been in the business of engineering defects for quite some time. Why not in our own gene pool?
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