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Society could eliminate homosexuality and other
characteristics that are merely different if genetic science went unchecked,
High Court judge Michael Kirby has warned. Justice Kirby, a human rights campaigner who revealed his own homosexuality two years ago, fears parents could ultimately engineer the sexuality of their children. "Given that most parents are heterosexual, few might actually feel a strong desire to have a child who was a homosexual," Justice Kirby told the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. "Yet in the past a proportion of every society has been homosexual. If the criterion is identity with the parents, where does the application of that criterion stop?" Without proper laws governing genetic research, it could also eliminate genes that produced baldness, short-sightedness or even shortness. Justice Kirby serves on UNESCO's international Bioethics Committee and heard testimonies recently from people who suffer from Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases and who worry that genetic engineering could lead to discrimination against the disabled or those considered imperfect. "They struck a chord with me because of my own experience as a homosexual man." he said. "Although I do not regard my sexuality as a disability, there is no doubt that some people would do so. Indeed, the hate mail I have received since disclosing my sexuality indicates that this view is not at all uncommon, even in relatively enlightened Australia." Leading doctors and ethicists support Justice Kirby's argument, saying that while genetic engineering could prevent some of the most tragic disabilities, it could also curb human differences -- and dangerously narrow the gene pool. Sydney University's Dean of Medicine, Professor Stephen Leeder, said genetic manipulation could help fight extreme conditions, such as anencephaly, a condition in which babies are born with almost no brain. "It is hard to see how allowing that sort of thing to go through makes great sense," Professor Leeder said. "But at the other end of the spectrum, you've got shortness. Or, if you like, gayness. These are merely differences and difference is the stuff of our genetic future." NSW Genetic Education Program director Christine Barlow-Stewart endorsed Justice Kirby's view but said medical research was a long way from "designer babies" whose genes could be tweaked to avoid homosexuality. Of the 30,000 known genes in the human body, Australian scientists could test only 300, she said. But some people, such as those who wished to avoid forms of dwarfism, were already using genetically engineered growth hormones. St James Ethics Centre director Simon Longstaff said genetic research should distinguish between treatment for genuine disabilities and conditions that create pain and suffering, and those designed simply to enhance conventional forms of beauty or to change behaviour. |