Pros And Cons Of Designer Babies

Kathi E. Hanna, a science and health consultant, states, “Many believe that use of gene transfer at the embryonic stage for enhancement would reach far beyond the limits of acceptable medical intervention” (Hanna). What is genetic engineering? Is it safe? Can it benefit humanity in the future? Genetic engineering is the changing of characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material, or genome.

Option 1: Designer Babies What is a designer baby? Designer baby is a non-scientific but popular journalistic term that refers to gene therapy, a technique that uses genes, screening, and modifying embryos to cure hereditary diseases. The term is also used to describe a possible scenario in which scientists choose specific traits or physical characteristics (genetic-makeup) before a baby is born. This process can help to remove many genetic diseases stemmed from defects in mitochondria ("BBC - Horizon - 2005 -

This means that not everyone will be able to pay to design their baby, and suddenly, people would not have racial discrimination but instead of whether you were a designer baby or not. I think it is reliable because the authors are science students who have probably being researching this topic. (THE PROS AND CONS OF ‘DESIGNER BABIES’ | The Ethics of ‘Designer Babies’ on WordPress.com, 2013). Designer babies could create a gap in our society.

Nature is the genetics in which a child inherits from their ancestors through DNA. Certain traits, such as intelligence, are proven to be passed through nature. Others however, such as anger, are debated both ways. Nurture is the external factors in one’s upbringing, including one’s environment, family, and culture. Both of these factors are proven to be the cause of a child’s disposition later in life, through the novel Frankenstein.

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.

Advancement in genetic research has enabled setting up of laboratories in various countries for trials of human cloning from somatic cells. Some institutions argue that they have successfully cloned human embryos although such claims are not yet proven (Ayala 8879). Genetic engineering and technologies aim at recreating human beings a process that poses an ethical dilemma despite being of high application in various medical fields such as in animal cloning. The first clone on sheep named Dolly was in 1997, which was estimated to have a success rate of between one and four percent (Kuhse 19). However, in human beings, the percentage may lower and may interfere with the natural biological order of life.

One of the ethical issues of today that the medical field is facing is about genetic engineering. A genetic engineering technology also known as genetic modification is a way in which the organism’s genetic genome, a complete set of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), is being directly manipulated using biotechnology. You can customize your offspring by having the opportunity to choose which genetic trait your unborn child should posses, best examples are gender, eyes and the color of the hair. Genetic engineering in lay man’s term is designer baby.

The animals are then screened to check which one shows the phenotype similar to human diseases. The two most effective ways to generate mutations are by exposing organisms to X-rays or to the chemical N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). Transgenesis Transgenic animals are generated by adding foreign genetic information to the nucleus of embryonic cells, thereby inhibiting gene expression. As against the use of X-ray or ENU, transgenesis uses the technique of injection of foreign DNA or the use of retroviral vector to introduce the transgene into an organism’s DNA.

What is Genetic Engineering? Genetic Engineering is the modification of a characteristic of an organism using biotechnology. In other words, genetic engineering is when you change a gene in an organism. How does this work? A donor gives his genes to another person.

A major revolution of science, for instance would be the variety of medicines that we have now that help with many illnesses that people could not have cured ages ago. Science plays a huge part in life as we know today. Many people believe that science has proven to have miraculous discoveries, but there are secrets that scientists use to corrupt the minds of others. The nonfiction article “Cloning of a Human,” written by Charles Q. Choi represents the way cloning can be a possibility in the near future.

Cloning is the closet living life to the real life. You can create hearts that looks like someone 's exact heart. You can create babies that look exactly the same as the parents wanted. This matters because cloning could help the death numbers decrease.

Curing the Future: Designer Babies Diseases and outbreaks have been becoming more and more common in the world lately. Scientists have thought of a way to reduce these outbreaks and even diseases in general: designer babies. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, allows doctors to screen embryos to see if the child will have any genetic defects before the embryos are placed into a woman’s uterus for pregnancy. If doctors find anything abnormal, they use In Vitro Fertilization to create babies in ‘test tubes’ and they will insert new genes and DNA in a special laboratory (What is a…). Many parents choose this option because if they discover that their child could have a genetic disease, they will replace the faulty DNA with healthy DNA so the child does not contract the disease or illness (What is a…).

Genetic engineering is changing the DNA code to express different traits. A plasmid is a circular piece of DNA that contains important genetic information. Recombinant DNA is the product after inserting your desired genes. The genes we hoped to insert in the pGLO lab were the GFP gene and the ampicillin resistance gene. GFP was needed so that we would tell if the ampicillin resistance gene had been properly placed when the bacteria glowed under a UV light.

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The practice of prenatal genetic testing, although becoming commonplace, has been put at the center of the abortion debate in the United States. Doctors should only perform prenatal genetic testing in rare cases and very sparingly in order to protect the lives of the unborn whose genome sequence may deviate from what is considered genetically ¨normal¨. Although ¨testing and abortion are not synonymous¨ (Rebouché and Rothenberg 993) these two have begun to form a clear connection in a world where abortion is now acceptable. While prenatal genetic testing makes improvements every year, there still is a risk of harming the unborn, yet living child. Not only can testing bring harm to the child, it may also lead to the parent´s terminating a