My aunt has a genetic disorder called HHT. My grandfather has a genetic disease called HHT. This is a disease that causes blood vessels to pop all over the body-most usually in the stomach. Bleeding in the stomach can be deadly. I thankfully do not have this genetic disease. I will never have to deal with extensive hospital stays, passing out from lack of blood, or having weekly surgery to clot any bleeds. Families have the battle everyday of whether to have kids with a possible genetic disorder or not have kids at all. Parents in these situations are beginning to have hope of conceiving a healthy child with the genetic engineering of their baby. Geneticists take a mothers egg and a fathers sperm, chose the healthy cells they would like to use and using invetro, implant them knot the mother. The result is a healthy child free of diseases. This procedure is medically beneficial for the child and for a mother who wishes to have a child. It benefits society as a whole because with no diseases possible, society will be in general healthier. We are known as the country of opportunities and should not restrict what people in our country decide to do with our life. While this procedure is costly, the cost of raising a child with a genetic disease is greatly higher. Be it resolved that the New Hampshire Stare Legislature create a ban on the genetic engineering of babies.
Other countries that are as technologically advanced as the United States have been faced with the same question of if to allow the engineering of children. After time considering the advantages and disadvantages the United Kingdom was originally one of the 25 countries to ban the practice but soon revoked this decision realizing how beneficial it can be (Rady Ananda, 2013). People have immigrated to the United States because we are based off a foundation of opportunity and freedom. More specifically our state motto is “live free or die”. With this we imply that everyone in our state should be able to make their own decisions. Banning the practice of genetically engineering babies would greatly go against our founding fathers wish for our country and our state beliefs.
The cost of having a healthy child is very expensive. The average parent of an 18 year old has spent approximately 14,000 dollars a year not including the cost of college or other fun things such as vacations (USDA, 2014). This comes to a total of about $245,000 dollars according to CNN money source (CNN, 2014). This includes the cost of housing, food, healthcare and other essential thing for survival. The cost of supporting a child with a genetic disorder such as HHT can cost up to $75,000 a year including medication, doctors’ appointments, hospital stays and lab tests among the few things that need to happen for that child (Thorne Warren, 2014). While engineering your child costs about $50,000 total. Compared with raising a sick child that family could save $1.3 million dollars with genetic engineering. Not only is there great savings for families but the government could also save money if genetically engineering a child becomes the norm. With the cost of healthcare and amount of sick people rising, the government is spending more money than necessary. If genetic disorders were eliminated, the government would not have to pay for as many sick people and the money could be put towards another important issue in our country.
Genetically engineering a child has many benefits for parents, for children and for government as a whole. While the process is expensive, in the long run it saves families money in terms of medications and treatments for their sick child. Many other countries have made compromises to not ban the genetic engineering of children because they see all of the positive things it has. We are a country that was built on the belief that everyone should be able to make their own decisions, and this should be one of them. The doctors that perform this procedure are highly trained and are the superheroes to parents that will soon become superheroes to their healthy, happy, disease free child.
