A newly released movie, “My Sister’s Keeper” has brought the controversial topics of parental rights and designer families to the box office. In this thought provoking movie Anna, the main character, was created to be a “donor child” for her older sister Kate who has leukemia. The parents choose to conceive Anna through genetic engineering to ensure that she was perfect genetic match with Kate. Thus, Anna can donate blood, bone marrow and whatever else is necessary to keep her elder sister alive.
Anna loves her sister and never complains. Then, 11 years later, Kate’s kidneys begin to fail and she’ll need one of Anna’s. Anna finally says no. She hires a big-shot lawyer and takes her parents to court seeking “medical emancipation.”
This movie is very timely on the current issues with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and generations of designer families. “Designer families” are becoming more and more popular with European and American couples. Using today’s technology to “design” the number, type and sex of their families has geneticists, ethicists, pro-life and pro-family experts alarmed over the potential harm this practice will have on children, families and society as a whole, and especially on women.
We want to hear from our readers, Do you think it is ok for a family to genetically engineer a child in hopes of saving another?
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