Zeugung auf Probe? – Selektion vor der Schwangerschaft?

Abstract

Various moral considerations with respect to PGD, i. e. normative ones as well as those about the predictable and possible consequences, clearly converge to provide a persuasive argument against any form of legalising PGD. In particular, what counts against PGD are the affirmation of clearly negative judgments about the quality of life and the selection of embryos according to those judgments; the questioning of the human dignity and human rights of early human embryos; and the resultant qualification of the prohibition to kill. This puts us on a slippery slope and undermines more and more the protection of life for the weakest members of our society. Thus there cannot be a right to a »healthy child« by way of PG D. From a Christian-moral perspective, the government and parliament would be well advised not to leave the regulation of the use of PGD to the professional medical organisations but to outlaw PGD in the planned Reproductive Medicine Act.