Christians: Do you consider it eugenics to test a fetus for hereditary, genetic or other disorders?

I was just wondering, because I have met some Christians on here that said it was eugenics and Hitlerian to test a fetus to see if it had a hereditary, genetic or other disorder. They even went as far as to say that amniocentesis should be banned.

So, what's your opinion?

It *can* be a slippery slope in the future. Im not against it per se, but I didnt personally partake in any prenatal testing because of the false positives that lead to unccessary amnios which then lead to some miscarriages. I would keep the baby regardless of disorder.
With that all said, I am not in the position to have to deal with some weird hereditary thing either, so again with abortion legal, testing should be upheld, but again, it can get murky in my opinion.

Great question btw!

EDIT: Gosh, Trish that was really rude and uncalled for. We arent a bunch of imbecile hicks....
Nice showing the love there for a person of the Jewish faith, nice.

EDIT: Peace, I vote Posse. The thumbs came literally one right after the other within 2 minutes of our posts. It always amazes me to see religious people be cruel to others. Peace to you :-)

Careful - you're gonna make them think about that big word ("eugenics"), and they might bend their brains ;-)

As for your question - I'm Jewish; I don't remotely think it's eugenics. That implies the engineering of the embryo, and eliminating a bad one doesn't mean cobbling together a new one out of DNA, or even breeding for a specific trait.

It's essentially eugenics if you decide to not have a child based on these "disorders" or imperfections. Trish is a perfect example of how religious bigotry and ignorance is not limited to Christians.

Well if you are just testing (which is what you state) it wouldn;t be eugenics. Eugenics is manipulating evolution. Now if you were to abort or attempt to alter the child based on results then yes it would be, but just to know to prepare yourself for any special care or consideration that child might need and have no it's not.

EDIT: Trish the point to being rude and insulting was?????????


EDITII:we all got thumbs down??? why I would like to know. We all stated testing is not eugenics (which by defintion it isn't), none of it says we disagree with it being done for care and health reasons. We said to alter or destroy the pregnancy based on test results is (which it is by definition).

So was the purpose of this question just to beat up on some Christians or does Trish have a posee who has "got her back"? Either way it is extremely immature and uncalled for.

Those Christians were grossly misinformed.

Eugenics is the practice of removing "unsavory" genes from the overall human gene pool by killing or sterilizing "unsavory" individuals. Case in point: Hitler.

There's nothing wrong with testing a fetus for hereditary or genetic disorders. Finding out that your baby has Down's is no reason to kill it, though. Should you be able to kill your infant if you don't find out that it has Down's until after it's born?

I believe that amniocentesis is dangerous for the fetus, and wouldn't do it, but I don't go so far as to say it should be banned. What's the point in testing a fetus for any type of disorder unless you'd consider aborting it if it had a disorder? If I were pregnant, I would feel the need to know if it had a particular disorder, because it wouldn't matter utnil it was born.

No.

yes and no.

In my opinon eugenics is / was a practice or study of selective breeding with the intention of the betterment of the human gene pool.

you can argue on grounds of avoidance of individual suffering, hardship , pain etc that testing for some genetic disorders is not eugenics but a question of avoiding unnecessary suffering.

the line may well be blurred as a decision has to be made what makes a life worth living.

I have had three children and am currently pregnant with my fourth. I had been given the option with each pregnancy to test for anomalies. Each time I rejected the option. The main and most important reason I did not test for disorders was because there was nothing that could be done for the child even should it be discovered that there was a problem. Secondly, the tests simply are not 100% accurate.

On a separate but similar note, I had ultrasounds done with each child to ensure that the baby was not breech. Each time, the ultrasound bore some sort of inaccuracy (with the exception of sex). Shortly before I gave birth to my 3rd son , I was told that he was not receiving enough nourishment from the placenta and that he would be quite small. Just a few days later, I gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby who was the largest of all of my children.

I don't necessarily believe that these tests should be banned.
The only reason, however, that the tests have any validity or usefulness is based on the future hope that we may be able to cure or in some other way assist unborn children.

Perhaps many of the Christians that you have spoken with have objected to the testing because some women may use it to justify an abortion. Some women (and men, for that matter) attempt to assign value to people based on health condition. In that instance, it is reminiscent of 1930's Germany, as you saw a dramatic example of what happens when people attempt to assign other people value. Humanity is in its very nature flawed and, thus, incapable of deciding who has value.

What's wrong with Eugenics?

Seriously.