A chara, – When I was growing up, cancer was a dreaded word, a death sentence, so awful that many couldn't utter it and would instead refer only to it by its initial. Many still do and, despite medical advances, to be diagnosed as having "C" continues to be a terrifying experience. So when a headline such as "Embryonic testing offers 'an end to hereditary cancers'' appears (October 9th), who could object? We all want a cure for cancer.
Except, of course, this isn’t a cure. It is the elimination from the “bloodline” of all who carry a genetic marker indicating a “predisposition” to a certain kind of cancer by killing them at the embryonic stage. Whether they would have gone on to develop the disease is unknowable; in this context all that matters is that the potential is there.
Cancer is, without question, horrible. But is weeding out in advance all those who might develop certain kinds better? I do not think so. I, like everyone else, have lost loved ones and friends to this disease. And, of course, I would have preferred they had not suffered, as would they. But I think they would agree that as much as they would have liked to avoid the pain they endured, not being allowed to be born at all would have been too high a price to pay. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.