[ExI] article about Rafal and his daughter

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 1:12 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 23, 2022 at 8:33 PM Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2022 at 8:58 PM Gadersd via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I should clarify that I approve selecting one embryo over another if
>>> there is a very significant genetic downside with one such as down
>>> syndrome. Selecting one embryo over another for a very slight improvement
>>> irks me for previously mentioned reasons.
>>>
>>
>> ### Let's say you are faced with two possible courses of action:
>>
>> A) Results in X% risk of disease, trivial or severe, or inconvenience or
>> other unpleasantness afflicting your child
>> B) Results in X+1% risk of risk of the above outcomes
>>
>> Assume the costs of either action are the same and there is no impact on
>> you or third parties except through the different effects on your child.
>>
>> Are you telling me there is a plausible situation where taking option B
>> is preferable to option A? Under what ethics?
>>
>
> Because it never is like that - it's never that clean - in practice.
> There are always other factors and risks commingled in.  Pretending it is
> that clean ignores those other factors, with negative results too often for
> his tastes.
>

### Let's say option B is standard pre-implantation genetic testing for
aneuploidy, which helps avoid giving your child Down's syndrome. Option A
is the same with added analysis for diabetes, cancer and stroke risk.

The cost is exactly the same, since option A is only adding a simple
algorithm to be run on the genome that is obtained in option B. There are
no other costs, no additional risks, no direct physical impacts on anybody,
the number of embryos generated is the same, the number of embryos
discarded is the same, but in option B you only choose to discard aneuploid
embryos, then pick randomly from the remaining ones, while in option A you
discard aneuploid embryos and then pick the healthiest one of the remaining
ones.

It is an absolutely clean choice, as clean as you get in real life. The
specific reductions in the risk of diabetes and other conditions are in the
10 - 50 % range. These reductions in disease are the only difference
between the two options.

Is there any situation where taking option B is preferable to option A?

Rafal
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