Embryo fears

Published on 20/08/2012 00:00

the ethical minefield of eugenics raises its head once again, with the suggestion by Professor Julian Savulescu (your report, 18 August) that embryos should be screened for defects as a “moral obligation” for prospective parents.

This raises fears about what happens to the embryos that do not, for whatever reason, conform to what image of perfection the parents (or perhaps the state) expect. The implication is that the embryos would be destroyed, which is elective abortion by any other name. 

Before condemning this idea out of hand, however, we should understand that the application of eugenics was considered by the UK, the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia and many other countries in the first half of the 20th century as one way of ensuring a healthy and stable population. Unfortunately, the atrocities and abominations carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War consigned the idea to the very outer edges of acceptability. But as the world teeters ever closer to a possible health armageddon, with ever-greater demands made on decreasing resources, it may yet reappear as one of the possible solutions.

BRIAN ALLAN

Keith Street

Kincardine-on-Forth

Alloa, Clackmannanshire