By
Catherine
Period 7
Designer Babies?
“Designer babies” refers to children that have been genetically engineered in the womb to have certain desired qualities. During an embryo screening, a scientist would be able to tell what physical characteristics a child will grow to have; as well as whether or not this child is at risk of developing or will develop genetic disorders such as autism, down syndrome, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s and many other disorders. Designer babies are generally made through in-vitro fertilization where the embryo is removed from a women and is manipulated in a lab to have certain desired qualities and then placed back into a females womb to finish development. Even though this technology can be extremely beneficial to people it can also be used for superficial purposes. This makes it a topic for public debate. Most people find this immoral, but they often say if its just to fix a problem in their genetic code, its fine. However its nefarious when it is used for superficial purposes like skin color,eye color, and hair color. It is also unethical to make superior kids by adding genes that make them smarter and stronger. The people that are opposed to this also say that the process is too expensive for the average, American family. The procedure costs around $50,000, about what the average U.S. family makes in a year.
Benefits
Though this procedure is expensive it can greatly improve a future child’s health as well as give them traits that would make them successful in life. Plus the parents of the child can make their child look however they want them to look like. When doing genetic coding, geneticists can look at your future child’s DNA and see if a mutation has occurred or if the child has a gene sequence that spells out a inherited medical condition such as cancer. Then the geneticists can alter the DNA of the child if they do have this risk. They can also change the genetic coding of the child to a sequence that improves their mental and physical prowess. Likewise the geneticists can change the genetic sequences that controls what the child would look like and change it into what the parents want them to look like. Parents can do all these things to ensure a healthy, successful life for their children.
Risks
Nevertheless there are still problems with this procedure and what it means for the future. One of the problems is that since the technology is new there is the possibility that it will not work and may kill the unborn child or it will change the child’s personality by accident. So instead of getting a happy, average child there is a possibility you can get an angry, intelligent child. The ability to change the appearance and gender of a child can also cause future problems in society. One possible long term issue lies in societies in where one gender or other important characteristic is favored over the other. To visualise this, in countries like China and India, where baby boys are more desired, this technology could come in handy so that every set of parents that would like to have a baby boy would get one. However, if society consisted of only boys, the human race would most certainly die out. Another problem is in societies where certain characteristics are favored over others. Individuality as we know it would most likely cease to exist in those societies. All these possibilities and problems make people undecided about this topic.
Q & As
To get other peoples opinion and to test their knowledge on this topic I ask asked a series of questions such as:
1.What are designer babies?
2.Would you want a designer baby?
3.What effect will genetic modification have on society?
4.Should parents be allowed to custom build their children?
5.What do you think are the benefits of designer babies?
These are the answers:
1. Most people said that they are babies that are genetically altered.
2. 4 out of the 5 people said that they did not want a designer baby.
3. A lot of the people I interviewed said that there would be a lack of diversity in society.
4. About half of the people I asked this question to where in between and the other half said yes.
5. For this last question a great deal of people said that the benefit was that you can remove genetic problems from the baby.
Reflection
Overall designer babies could be considered both moral and immoral depending on how you use the technology. Designer babies can help cure a child of a disease before he/she has to suffer through it, but the process could also be used for purely superficial purposes that defeat the real intentions of it. In my opinion they are reasonable only if they are used for medical purposes. Re-designing life is a tricky subject it can have benefits and risks, but if the positives outweighed the negatives is it worth it?
Resources:
- Ahmad, M., Desai, H., Morgan, H., & Yoon, L. (2009, March 27). Designer Babies: The Good and the Bad. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://designerbabies.weebly.com/index.html
- Johnson, P. (2013, March 20). Pros and Cons of Designer Babies. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies.html
- Barnard, E., Schrading, J., Fluornoy, K., & Brown, I. (2013, April 28). THE PROS AND CONS OF “DESIGNER BABIES”. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from https://designerbabiesethics.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/the-cons-of-designer-babies/
- Bordon, C. (2012, December 1). Designer Babies. Retrieved February 18, 2015, from http://designerbabies-information.weebly.com/index.html
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