Word: dor
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...While Dor Yeshorim has generally been well received within the Orthodox community, its outside reception has been mixed. Some hail the program as an effective attempt to reduce suffering and to prevent the perpetuation of these painful, often fatal, diseases. Others criticize Dor Yeshorim as a Promethean scenario; modern science has taken another step in abrogating the ancient role of God. In either case, Dor Yeshorim does raise several serious questions with implications far beyond the Orthodox Jewish community...
...Dor Yeshorim is not the Frankenstein its critics fear. Diseases like Tay-Sachs are a serious problem within the Orthodox community; four of Rabbi Ekstein's 10 children died from it. That medical technology can prevent this should be seen as a blessing. Dor Yeshorim sidesteps the question of abortion by preventing the conception of babies doomed to suffer...
...situations are never static, as Dor Yeshorim's history shows. The program continues to expand its scope. As Samuel Lefkowitz, a consultant with the project, asserts in The New York Times, the organization aims to someday test for "anything possible...
Then there is the question of testing itself. Science is not always completely precise. The accuracy of any data is susceptible to a host of laboratory and human errors. Also, scientists still don't know exactly how many genetic diseases operate. These flaws are not reason to stop the Dor Yeshorim program altogether, but couples may want to reconsider shaping their future around a single test...
...most extreme objections to Dor Yeshorim focus on the perils of modern science. Dr. Francis S. Collins of the National Institutes of Health summarized Dor Yeshorim in the Times as "a miniature but significant version of Big Brother," referring to George Orwell's dis-utopian novel...