Designer babies have been the debate for a few years now, placed upon a shaky moral platform. With human science pushing the boundaries of human genetics further and further, many are questioning if designer babies have finally crossed the line in science. The problem is that people view designer babies on a moral perspective rather than a medical one. Designer babies should be tolerated because they can help parents prevent their offspring from having certain diseases and disabilities.
The scientific term “designer baby” refers to a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in-vitro fertilization or IVF to ensure the presence or the absence of particular genes or characteristics. Doctors and scientist work together to conduct these procedures, and work to advance the technology and options for choosing an unborn child’s traits. Some even refer to “designer babies” as “test tube babies.” The reasoning behind these given names is because before the child is even born, the genes and DNA can be altered in a lab in a petri dish. When families choose IVF for “designer babies,” the doctors use biotechnology to choose what type of baby the family wants.
Designer babies should be allowed in our society because it will encourage to scientist get a better understanding of the human genome. Danielle Simmons,Ph.D states , “Of course, as genetic research advances, tests are continually being developed for traits and behaviors that are not related to disease. Most of these traits and behaviors are inherited as complex conditions, meaning that multiple genes and environmental, behavioral, or nutritional factors may contribute to the phenotype. Currently, available tests include those for eye color, handedness, addictive behavior, "nutritional" background, and athleticism. But does knowing whether one has the background for these non disease traits negatively affect one 's self-concept or health perception?
Some of my reasons are it can increase the human lifespan by 30 years, can help prevent genetic diseases, and it reduces the risk of diabetes and cancer. (“list”). Based on the evidence I found I know believe that designer babies are good because a designer baby can be protected from genetic diseases. If you can prevent a genetic diseases from happening that would be a good thing. The evidence I use to support this is there are all sorts of genetic diseases the one I learned about is genetic blindness.
Designer genetics to create a baby after careful selection is a meme, and “we can say that memes are ‘selfish’, that they ‘do not care’, that they ‘want’ to propagate themselves, and so on, when all we mean is that successful memes are the ones that get copied and spread, while unsuccessful ones do not” (Blackmore 37), and some may consider this genetic modification to be a successful meme which is why parents are so willing to try it. By using technology in this type of way, it may possibly benefit some if it is spread for good causes, such as helping a baby be born without a disease that is known to run in the family so the parents won’t have to see their child go through pain. Many parents put their faith in “23andMe” and their technology because it is their last hope to be able to conceive a child without them having to worry about any debilitating disease or disabilities and since this procedure would be implicated even before the child is developed, there would be no questions of morality. However, some people might take advantage of this new technology and use it for nothing more than creating their fantasy child, as they start to choose non-health related traits such as weight, height, gender and eye color.
Current times suggest, people are already concerned about their appearance; height, weight and beauty. This is leading people towards technology and science to change their features, which is the process of plastic surgery. In the future Non-designer babies would be treated unfairly due to their imperfections. These children would be missing out on opportunities such as education, jobs, and overall acceptance in society. Designer babies could also a put a gap in society, with them being the best looking, smarter, prettier.
Designer babies are a bad advance to medicine because they cost a lot of money so not everyone can afford them. They also do not get to be themselves they are someone or multiple people all at once. Not all genes are perfect so therefore you cannot cure every disease you do not want it to have. Our world would be a better place if we stopped creating our babies we do not want the next generation of humans all to be
The Controversy Over Embryo Selection (Midterm Essay) Embryo selection has become such a controversial topic recently due to its rising popularity. Celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Kim Kardashian used embryo selection processes to select the sex of their baby and many others have taken a larger step. With this process, parents can choose traits for their babies like personality, height, intelligence, hair color and even eye color. In other words, parents can create their own perfect baby like they would do while choosing a house.
As technology advances, more things become possible. One of these things is genetically modifying a baby, this is very wrong. Genetic modifying or genetic engineering is altering someone or something’s DNA. Scientists hope to cure diseases with this method but doing this can lead to some harmful effects. This process is very unethical.
Why? How could you live in a world that you had a beautiful baby but it is now a designer baby. And studies show that “ 3 out of 10 people who opt for having a designer baby feel that they can make their babies immortal(living forever)”. Yes that could be a good thing
This procedure’s purpose is to switch out genes for more preferred ones, especially to improve the health of the child. Genetic engineering could permit selection of desired physical and pleasurable traits for non-medical reasons, which has created concern in some people. The process of switching out the genes of a fetus to install genes that are more preferred has brought up debate about whether or not parents should be able to alter their babies genes to make them more appealing to the parents interests. There are many different ways of looking at this procedure and in contrast to other scientific procedures it can be for greater good or for unnecessary enhancement that could potentially create problems in society. Designer babies aren’t morally correct or incorrect, but are in between depending on what it is being used for.
There are so many pros and cons to go over so let’s begin with the pros. The pros of having a designer baby are that the can reduce the risk of genetic diseases. This means that the baby will have a less chance of getting diseases more than others. Also they can reduce the risk of inherited medical conditions. So whatever the generation of the parents had the baby won’t have the parent choose the baby not to have.
Should or should we not prohibit genetically engineered babies is the question to ask. After years and year of trying to figure out the cure for a disease like a mitochondrial disease, a group of professional on the topic believes that it would greatly benefit the baby ’s outcome exceptionally if their parents has harmful genetics. Most people concern would be how the baby would turn out because there have not been any clinical trials that prove that the genetics that is engineered properly work like they should. I personally believe that the genetics of baby should not be engineered, but I do believe that it should be up to the parent of the children since it is their child in the first place.
Doing the procedure undermines evolution and could even reverse it. The reason humans have been so popular in terms of surviving and reproducing is due to the genetic diversity given to them from two million years of evolution. Now, not everyone will look exactly the same, but most will be pretty, healthy, and smart because almost everyone has the same idea of what a “better” human is (“Designer Babies: The Good and the Bad”). Almost no parent who would go through with the procedure would choose an ugly and dumb child.
As someone who believes in the good that science brings, I feel that risk designer babies bring outweigh the benefits. It will cause a divide in our society where “traditional” children will be consistently compared to genetically modified children, and it may force people to choose to Personally, I would not be comfort with participating in any assisted reproduction processes. The creation of life is sacred and should be respected and performed in the way God
