착상전진단의 윤리적 문제점들*

The ability to diagnose genetic diseases early in pregnancy has already demonstrated the power of remarkable forms of technology and stimulated innumerable ethical debates. Now the diagnosis of genetic disease even before implantation provides new possibilities and adds to the ethical problems we face. There is a considerable difference between the wish to have a child and the desire to have a perfect child.

As long as a pre-implantation diagnosis continues to require testing after embryo-transfer by an additional prenatal diagnosis test in order to ensure its results, at this stage of technology, there is no ethically sufficient reason to utilize pre-implantation diagnosis. At a future date, this problem must be discussed in greater detail. In this discussion, there is one perspective that must not be lost from sight: after prenatal diagnosis, at least theoretically, there is the possibility that a couple will decide to carry a genetically abnormal fetus to full-term. In the context of pre-implantation diagnosis and in vitro fertilization the decision making process for couples is eliminated; the genetically abnormal embryo will not be implanted.

The question of the moral status of human life in its early stages - of its biological, social and personal attributes continue to be philosophically controversial and in need of exploration.