- Joined
- May 21, 2006
- Messages
- 9,555
- Reaction score
- 31
Every once in a while in gay marriage discussions, incest comes up as a comparison. The two are often compared as actions of two consenting adults. However, they do differ in that incest has the potential to create children. And in the instance of incest, the possibility of genetic disease is higher than in a random coupling. That's typically the stated reason why incest is still banned just about everywhere.
However, random couplings do have the potential to create children with genetic diseases and no one typically prohibits them from coupling. But why not? Genetic diseases can be terrible wreaking havoc on entire families and generally severely impairing the quality of life of the victim. Essentially, the parents are bringing a child into the world just to have them suffer.
In the past, it could be seen as an act of God/the Devil that one could suffer so much. But now, we know how they work and can predict the likelihood that a person would be born with a disease. Given our modern technology, why not force potential parents to be screened?
If screened, dangerous partners could be separated from each other preventing genetic disease from happening. Perhaps the extinction of those diseases may be possible with enough generations. In addition, the effort involved in screening may weed out less committed parents. A national database of genetic information could also be used in solving crimes as the DNA of perpetrators could be dispersed widely and used for investigations.
However, random couplings do have the potential to create children with genetic diseases and no one typically prohibits them from coupling. But why not? Genetic diseases can be terrible wreaking havoc on entire families and generally severely impairing the quality of life of the victim. Essentially, the parents are bringing a child into the world just to have them suffer.
In the past, it could be seen as an act of God/the Devil that one could suffer so much. But now, we know how they work and can predict the likelihood that a person would be born with a disease. Given our modern technology, why not force potential parents to be screened?
If screened, dangerous partners could be separated from each other preventing genetic disease from happening. Perhaps the extinction of those diseases may be possible with enough generations. In addition, the effort involved in screening may weed out less committed parents. A national database of genetic information could also be used in solving crimes as the DNA of perpetrators could be dispersed widely and used for investigations.