DNA testing in china can reveal children's traits from an early age

The article i found is about DNA testing. In China at the Chongqing Children's Palace a new program has been developed. For $880, parents can send their children (ages 3-12)to a camp where scientists can determine their natural talents. A swab of saliva is taken from the mouth collecting 10,000 cells allowing experts to isolate 11 different genes revealing information about I.Q., focus, athletic ability, memory, and more. I decided to look for another source on this topic because i wasn't sure of its credibility. i found this http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=chinese-childrens-camp-tests-dnagat-2009-08-05 . It verifies the CNN article. The scientific american article talks about how the camp will observe how the kids play as well, to help conclude the child's natural talents. Although scientific american doesn't have any interviews like CNN does. The CNN article talks about how competition in the world today is all about who has the most talent, so the main goal of the testing is to give the Chinese children the advantage of a scientific plan from an early age. Neither article addressed that since in China, parents can only have one baby. Because of this, DNA testing will lead chinese parents to push their children even more than they already do, allowing them almost no freedom to choose their career. Also, it could lead to more adoptions. Chinese parents could decide that instead of having their own kid, they want to adopt a kid with dominate traits that foreshadow success, or traits that sound appealing. This could open a new business: the adoption of children with desired traits. But that is a bit of a stretch. So although DNA testing to determine a child's traits is a huge technological advancement, it could lead to more harm than good. People base their decision of what career to pick on more than just what their genes say they are good at; they choose to do what that like, or what is best for their family. A person's environment also greatly determines the career they choose. A person could be born with the genes of a great baseball player, but he may live in the middle east where baseball virtually doesn't exist. So the person will choose a different career, one that makes them happy. So parents shouldn't pick the career for their kids based on DNA. They should allow their kids to choose their career naturally. The scientific american article even claims that in the next year parents will be able to choose which physical traits they want their baby to have, and scientists can determine which embryos to implant into the womb giving the baby those traits. This concept of a "designer baby" sounds a little bit like eugenics. The ability to better humanity by ruling out bad genetic traits. Neither article talked about this. So overall, although many people are excited about being able to determine a child's career from as early as age 3, the idea is a very controversial one. I personally think that it is a cool idea, but with the wrong intentions. It may lead to more harm than good, but CNN and scientific american think otherwise.

Citing:

Emily Chang: CNN. DNA Testing In China Can Reveal Children's Traits From An Early Age. August 5 http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/03/china.dna.children.ability/index.html?iref=newssearch (accessed august 9, 2009)