Genetic engineering
Judaism and genetic engineering
Is it right to select the traits of our children? Is there a difference between screening for genes and directly engineering them into our children?
Jewish experts have thought particularly hard about genetic engineering. This is partly because their community has an obvious application for the technology since there's a particular genetic disease, Tay Sachs, that targets some types of Jewish people, and partly because Jewish law, Halacha, has examined medical issues in great depth throughout history.
It's also a painful subject for the Jewish community, not just because of the suffering of individuals, but because false genetic and eugenic arguments were used to justify the Holocaust in which over 6 million Jews were murdered.
Problems and questions
- Is it right to screen for an incurable genetic disease that doesn't show itself till middle-age, like Huntingdon's disease?
- Screening will prevent the disease being passed on, but it will also destroy the life of the person who hasn't yet shown symptoms of the disease, by filling even their pre-symptomatic period with fear.
- What about someone found to be a Tay Sachs carrier:
- Where do they stand when considering marriage?
- Should they disclose their carrier status to a possible partner - and at what stage in the relationship?
- Should they ask about the carrier status of a prospective partner - and at what stage in the relationship?
- What about a couple who discover that they're both carriers:
- Should they cancel the wedding?
- Should they have a childless marriage?
- Should mass population screening be carried out for such diseases?
Tay Sachs disease
Tay Sachs disease is a fatal genetic disorder in children that causes progressive destruction of the central nervous system.
This disease is controlled by a pair of genes on chromosome 15. If both genes are inactive the person has the disease and dies very young. If one gene is active the person is perfectly healthy - but they are a carrier of the disease.
If they marry another person who is a carrier there is 25% chance that any child they have will have the disease and a 50% chance that any child they have will be a carrier.
Jewish people with an Ashkenazi background are much more likely to be Tay Sachs carriers than the rest of the population.
Premarital screening
This has been widely done to find people carrying the gene for Tay Sachs disease. In the USA over 70,000 people have been screened for the Tay Sachs gene, and over 100 couples have been discouraged from getting married as a result.
In Israel, screening for carriers has cut the number of Tay Sachs children born to newlywed ultra-orthodox Ashkenazi Jews to zero.
Some Jewish authorities are unsure whether it's right for a couple who are both carriers to marry and not have children. They say that there is a obligation in a marriage ('be fruitful and multiply') to have children and that the possibility of having an abnormal child does not remove this obligation.