Genetic Testing: Promise and Peril
Ottawa, Ontario, May 5, 2003

What about the potential misuse of genetic testing?

Along with the promise of designer medicine, genetic testing also holds the possibility of designer kids. In fact, when it comes to selecting children based on genetic characteristics, the future is already here. In many countries parents use genetic testing to find out the sex of the fetus, and females are often aborted.

"This is an example of how genetic testing can be terribly misused," says Dr. Alex MacKenzie. "(The aborting of girls) is really an underreported plague in India, China and elsewhere. But it's not a reason to walk away from genetic testing. It holds so much promise. If we just take the worst case and say, 'Look how drastic this can be', and close the door on identifying the child with spinal muscular atrophy … I think that would be a human tragedy."

In using genetic tests, Timothy Caulfield says that we need to distinguish between testing for diseases and testing for "superficial", non-medical traits. According to a recent survey, approximately 25 percent of Canadians would consider using genetic testing to select for their unborn child's aesthetic characteristics. "We have to guard against that kind of testing," warns Caulfield.

Bill C-13, currently in third reading in Parliament, would ban genetic testing for the sex of a fetus when this wasn't a medical necessity.

However, Abby Lippman says that defining what constitutes a medical issue is in itself a judgement call. While it bans sex-related testing, Lippman notes that many disability activists have argued that Bill C-13 is contradictory in permitting the genetic testing of a fetus for various "disabilities".

"Should it be OK to ban a test that selects against sex, but to accept very happily a test that discriminates against people of different abilities?"