Fathers not relevant.

[Viking_UK]

As for eradicating diseases by selecting embyros that don't have them... well, I'm afraid first of all that that approach will never truly eradicate a disease unless we get so anally attentive toward it that we choose embryos that don't even carry a single copy of a deleterious mutation. Given that such a thing would have to be done to every conceived embryo, the cost would be enormous and extremely difficult, not to mention ethically unsound (destroying embryos that simply carry a disease gene, even though they don't have the gene, is unethical in my book).

My point on eradicating genetic diseases was more about stopping carriers having children at all rather than discarding embryos. And before anyone goes off on one, that's not a view I subscribe to, but it's the logical extrapolation from some of your arguments. Basically, if someone carries genes for a disease, if they don't breed, they don't pass on those genes, but I believe that (most) people have a right to have children and that children have a right to life, however short it may be.

 

[Ed69]

Is a heterosexual relationship is the singular best model for parenting? What about lesbian relationships where a father figure is introduced? Is that not sufficient? I'm just throwing this out there. Must a father be someone who shares that child's DNA?

I'm well aware of the ruling having read through the articles. This is what I was referring to (from the first article):

"He said the influence of a father figure was as important for daughters as it was for sons.
"It is more often from the father that those young girls learn about empathetic, non-conditional love - that it's possible to have a relationship that doesn't have to involve sex," he said.
Labour ex-minister George Howarth asked if he accepted that there were bad fathers who can "have a bad influence in some circumstances" - to which Mr Duncan Smith said he did.
Lib Dem science spokesman Evan Harris asked: "Do you consider lesbian couples to be broken families? And if you do, what evidence to you have that the children of those families are going off the rails?"'

Hence my questions which I think have merit.





What the fuck are you smoking? Where did you get the idea I was advocating irresponsibility?[/quote]I smoke weed and tobbaco.If I can be a father and not share dna,why not the reverse?