先天胎兒胚胎鐮狀性細胞病變在生產倫理中的抉擇－－以非洲為例

Sickle cell genetic disorders in embryos and implication for reproductive ethics in Africa: To produce or prevent

From a global perspective, Africa has the highest prevalence of people living with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) with Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Gabon and Cameroon having the highest burden of the condition on the continent. Moral arguments were advanced in this essay as to whether and why an embryo carrying SCD should be terminated based on the obligation to prevent avoidable harm to a child. It is well known that children born with SCD often suffer from acute chest syndrome; (insufficient oxygen to the lungs), are often anemic; suffer from regular joint pains and a general poor quality of life. These complications are more debilitating for SCD sufferers who live in African countries because of the weak healthcare systems and infrastructural deficits in that setting. On moral grounds and as a form of responsible procreative decision-making, it was recommended as a first step that couples in African countries where prenatal screening/diagnosis is in use ought not to knowingly produce children with SCD. As a second and far-reaching step within the African context, on moral grounds, marital arrangements between hemoglobin formations of intending couples with Sickle Cell Traits (SCTs) in African countries should be criminalized as such unions have the possibility of potentially procreating children with SCD. However, it is important to indicate that arguments advanced in this essay may not necessarily constitute sufficient moral reason in affluent countries to abort an embryo which through prenatal screening was detected to carry the SCD.