Today research into genetic processes has definitely come a long way. Imagine being able to ensure that your child is healthy before they are even born, mind blowing? Well guess what, you may even be able to choose what your child will look like and decide what all their traits will be. In the future you may now be able to access such technology, to make sure that your child turns out perfect. This is what the media calls "designer babies". The question is whether it is ethical or not.
On the medical side, many people would argue that by selectively choosing healthy children and genetically altering the ones who may have had possible diseases and illnesses, through genetic screening, is wrong because we are saying that the ones that could have developed illnesses are not good enough. After genetic screening, if the embryo proves to have a disease, then parents have the choice to abort the fetus or employ in vitro fertilization, where only genes without disease are used for the pregnancy. My opinion is, you should never have somebody suffer and if you have the choice to make sure that they don't have to live a hard life full of suffering, you should allow this. Also, by only creating healthy children, we can largely eliminate many genetic diseases in the world today. A future technology that has developed from the designer baby's issue, is human germline gene therapy, where the introduction of genetic changes in the embryo will then be incorporated into every single cell in the body, and therefore will be passed onto the future generations.
On the cosmetic side of the whole designer babies issue, people can choose what their child will look like such as choosing hair and eye colour, and many other physical traits. Many people are actually taking interest into this, so that they can free their children from any cosmetic defects they see. In London, an embryo was screened in order to make sure that the baby did not have eyes that looked downwards or sideways, which would create the illusion that the face was squinting. This was because the father suffered from the condition that made his eyes look that way, and he had suffered emotional distress and did not want his child to suffer from this. Many cosmetic alterations are to ensure that children do not have conditions that cause face disfigurations. Although many people see the cosmetic side of "designer babies" as shallow, in my opinion it is not entirely a bad thing. If the parent themselves have suffered from such face disfigurations and don't want their child to suffer from the same thing, than they should have a choice to have their child not have the disfiguration as well.
In conclusion, I would say that designer babies are not really such a bad thing. If it can save human beings from any types of diseases, illnesses, and suffering, than I say we should look more into this research.
"Doctors Screen Embryos to Avoid Babies with Squint - Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. Web. 12 Jan. 2011. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1752351.ece.
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COMMENTS
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On the medical side, many people would argue that by selectively choosing healthy children and genetically altering the ones who may have had possible diseases and illnesses, through genetic screening, is wrong because we are saying that the ones that could have developed illnesses are not good enough. After genetic screening, if the embryo proves to have a disease, then parents have the choice to abort the fetus or employ in vitro fertilization, where only genes without disease are used for the pregnancy. My opinion is, you should never have somebody suffer and if you have the choice to make sure that they don't have to live a hard life full of suffering, you should allow this. Also, by only creating healthy children, we can largely eliminate many genetic diseases in the world today. A future technology that has developed from the designer baby's issue, is human germline gene therapy, where the introduction of genetic changes in the embryo will then be incorporated into every single cell in the body, and therefore will be passed onto the future generations. On the cosmetic side of the whole designer babies issue, people can choose what their child will look like such as choosing hair and eye colour, and many other physical traits. Many people are actually taking interest into this, so that they can free their children from any cosmetic defects they see. In London, an embryo was screened in order to make sure that the baby did not have eyes that looked downwards or sideways, which would create the illusion that the face was squinting. This was because the father suffered from the condition that made his eyes look that way, and he had suffered emotional distress and did not want his child to suffer from this. Many cosmetic alterations are to ensure that children do not have conditions that cause face disfigurations. Although many people see the cosmetic side of "designer babies" as shallow, in my opinion it is not entirely a bad thing. If the parent themselves have suffered from such face disfigurations and don't want their child to suffer from the same thing, than they should have a choice to have their child not have the disfiguration as well.In conclusion, I would say that designer babies are not really such a bad thing. If it can save human beings from any types of diseases, illnesses, and suffering, than I say we should look more into this research.SOURCES
"Designer Babies: Creating the Perfect Child - CNN." Featured Articles from CNN. 30 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Jan. 2011. http://articles.cnn.com/2008-10-30/tech/designer.babies_1_designer-babies-perfect-child-genetic-screening?_s=PM:TECH."Human Germline Gene Therapy [MJM 1997 3: 126-132]." Faculty of Medicine, McGill University. Web. 12 Jan. 2011. http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/mjm/v03n02/v03p126/v03p126main.htm.
"Doctors Screen Embryos to Avoid Babies with Squint - Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. Web. 12 Jan. 2011. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1752351.ece.
PICTURE SOURCES
http://www.indiahealthtour.com/images/innerpages/IVF/ivf.jpg
http://fionnasbioblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/designer-babies-ethical-and-social.html#comments
http://bio-blob.blogspot.com/2010/11/ill-have-one-baby-thanks-hmm-black-hair.html#comments
1 comments:
As you pointed out, there is also the cosmetic side to consider, as more and more parents are starting to use PGD and IVF for cosmetic purposes. Though there are those who may use it to make sure their children won't suffer, there will also be people who'll use it because they want their son or daughter to have a certain hair or eye colour! Now that is perfectly unacceptable.
Also, if you think about if, if they make all the babies "perfect", it would limit the diversity of the human race, which, in turn, would only break down our resistance to the more environmental diseases in the long run, defeating the purpose entirely.
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