Topic
“Designer babies” is the term being used by the media to describe the future of modifying or selecting our children’s genes for desirable characteristics (medical and cosmetic). Are things getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes?"
What are “designer babies”?
Basically, you can choose your child’s particular genes or characteristics. You can choose your child’s hair colour, eye colour, short or tall, gender, etc. It’s similar to those games such as those “dress up” games where you choose clothing, hair colour and other stuff you want your “doll” to look like. Do you want your child to be the perfect, doll or action figure, with no imperfections? Designer babies. Doesn’t it just sound like a game? You check off the things you want your child to have, and just send this selection to the counter to start creating your child.
How can you make the perfect child?
With the minds of natural yet not so perfect people, they have created advance reproductive techniques using “InVitro Fertilization” or IVF. An egg would be taken from the mother and fertilized with the father’s sperm outside of the womb. Basically, it’s down in test tubes in a laboratory. Scientists were coming up with ways to alter the genes of the egg within the test tube to cure any genetic diseases by replacing faulty sections of DNA with healthy DNA. With time passing on and new generations of scientists, designer babies might be able to come to life from the drawing board.
My Opinion
I feel like genetic modifications to a child seem unnatural. But, with the use of genetic modifications, I can increase the survival rate of my child and let him/her live a life with no medical conditions. So, therefore, I am in the middle of the situation. If you were to ask me “would I design my baby”, I wouldn’t immediately respond “no”.
Let’s make up a little situation:
A female four months pregnant with a child. Her doctor is asking her if she would like an amniocentesis. Amniocentesis is a medical procedure where a small amount of fluid from the sac of the fetus is taken for testing. Doesn’t amniocentesis sound unnatural, because of the ability to identify if your child will have any genetic abnormalities?
The female agrees with proceeding with the amniocentesis. Weeks later, a report was given to her stating that her child was positive for Down syndrome. Now knowing that her child has a genetic abnormality, she questions herself if she should bear the child or have an abortion.
Would you choose to raise a child of Down syndrome and love him/her with their imperfections, or choose to abort the child? Abortion rates are so high, especially if the mother knows if her child has a genetic abnormality. With “designer babies”, partners can make it for sure that their child will have no abnormalities and can be somewhat “normal”.
What are the goods and bad of designing your baby?
You can have a child the way you want your child to be. Imagine a world where children are born genetically resistant to any disease or genetic abnormalities without the pains and costs of childhood immunizations, medications, etc. A plus factor is that you can choose how your child will look and the type of personality. It’d be like the perfect Barbie doll or Ken. (you know, Barbie and Ken) But, your child may be outcast from other people, more specifically the “naturals”. (Gundam Seed fans, anyone?) Even if your child is perfect, it is not natural. Your child will be different. There will be people who are against the idea of “Designer babies” and there are some who like the idea.
Let’s take a look at a section of an article:
“More recently, a January 2009 study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center found that an overwhelming 75% of parents would be in favor of trait selection using PGD – as long as that trait is the absence of mental retardation. A further 54% would screen their embryos for deafness, 56% for blindness, 52% for a propensity to heart disease, and 51% for a propensity to cancer. Only 10% would be willing to select embryos for better athletic ability, and 12.6% would select for greater intelligence.” (http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/bio/great-designer-baby-controversy-%E2%80%9909)
A great number of people (75%) are in favour of selecting their child’s genetic material for any types of imperfections such as propensity to cancer. Currently, we are able to determine the sex of the embryo, with is quite helpful to determine any sex-link disorders such as colour blindness, hemophilia, etc.
With the ability of designing your baby, there will be miscalculations and human errors. We are humans, we are not perfect. The first batch of “designed babies” will not be the best compared to the next batch. It sounds like an awful process for these babies because they have to live their life labeled as “designed”. It’s like an assembly line of robots or a "product". One awful factor is that this child was not given the ability to choose to be labeled as “designed”. The child has no choice, no say to this sort of decision made by their parents. Conclusion
Before I conclude, let’s take a look at this video:
If the choice of being able to “design” you ability became an actually option, would people become pressured by it? Would people choose to design their own baby to give them the best life, even if the parents are against it?
The ethical and legal questions of “designer babies” are still unknown. We do not know if this actually process will be become real. Parents want best for their own child to live a full life of happiness with no medical obstacles in the way. “Designer babies” could be an obsessive way to create the perfect child rather than to actually guide them through life with your own teachings.
Works Cited:
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/bio/great-designer-baby-controversy-%E2%80%9909
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont3.htm
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439771603075099.html
Commented on:
Kayla's Bio blog - http://kaykay-93.blogspot.com/
Anthony's Blog - http://zephanest.blogspot.com/
Commented on:
Kayla's Bio blog - http://kaykay-93.blogspot.com/
Anthony's Blog - http://zephanest.blogspot.com/
3 comments:
HEY JENNY (:
how the heck did you design your blog, so pretty!
ANYWAYS, the video you posted had a woman who called in with a very interesting point- the money spent on medical research for creating the desired baby could be spent on more important things! Just think about it- the costs for creating a baby with the perfect eye colour, hair colour, gender, and even the perfect nose, are inevitably expensive, let alone morally wrong. All of this money could be going towards a greater cause like curing cancer and preventing diseases that many people suffer and are dying from. Creating the perfect baby is unnecessary and should be done the au-naturel way. It is simply a waste of money.
That is such an awesome picture at the beginning. Made me want to laugh and vomit at the same time.
You said something that never actually occurred to many people (myself included); that the first batch of designer babies will be less desirable than future versions.
After thinking on that point, I realised that designer babies are merely an unnatural form of evolution. But since it does occur naturally, then we might want to leave this kind of stuff to nature, which seems to mysteriously have better results that BENEFIT the species, rather than our procedures that either end up hurting us or another person/species/planet.
Jenny, what a great job in designing this blog!
Anyways I thought that short video and the person who was talking in that video were very interesting because of how they said it affected so many aspects of life in that childs future. The natural way is the way that God made us so that we would be able to sustain the planet and be stewards of the world. I like how you reasoned out why you would be in the middle of things in regards to designer babies and that you weren't immediately biased and use facts to support your opinion. It made me think in a more optimistic way. Jed's point is another one I noticed in your blog which is a suttle yet hardhitting fact of life and future generations. We will always be changing and desiring to be better because we don't think we are good enough for each other.
I just wish it doesn't come down to using designer babies for shallow purposes like more desirable this and desirable that. By exploring some social and psychological aspects of human thought we can probably find the reason for people trying to play God. For now I also think that we should keep things natural and I don't believe we should be changing natures way of doing things. We should probably eliminate disease passed down through generations but not eliminate disease. I know it sounds crazy but do you want to live forever? That's another debate but that's what I think you should ponder on a bit.