Monday, November 30, 2009
Designer Babies!
The Definition of Designer Babies is "a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics." It gives parents options like we have never seen before that could ultimately give us control over the evolution of humans. Yet there the age old question if this is just another thing we are taking too far, possibly to the next extreme.
How is the baby created?
A designer baby is created by in-vertro fertilization or IVF which is when they fertilise eggs
with sperm in test tubes in a laboratory. The cell is genetically tested which allows doctors and parents to reduce the risk of child having the chance or being born with a disorder like Down syndrome. The parents then get to decide whether to discard the embryo or implant it in the mother womb. When the child is chosen they imbed it into the mother’s womb and hope for a successful pregnancy. Right now there are to two legal possible ways to carry out advanced reproductive technologies on humans. The first involves choosing the type of sperm that will fertilize the egg therefore determining the sex and genes of the baby. The second technique is when the embryo is screens for genetic disease therefore only selected embryos are implanted back into the mother womb. These to procedures are called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis also known as PGD.
Ethics of Designer Babies
People today and in the near future do not see the moral integrity that they could potently be losing. By playing the role of god, like choosing the sex of their child in numerous Asia countries who prefer boys over girls. This could possible create an imbalance in their society as well as diminish the value of women in their society. Designer babies could also possibly create a greater division between rich and poor, as rich couple may be able to enhance the genetic makeup of their infant to make them as well as give them a greater chance to become more successful. Everyone who is born has an opportunity to contribute to this world, and by designer babies there taking away the uniqueness that every individual has to offer, and contribute to society. The beauty of the human race is the diversity that everybody brings to the world, if everyone was the same, and custom made we would eliminate people who struggle or have difficulties. However we would lose out on the genius such as the Mozart’s or Einstein’s and all the potential successors. We also learn from people who are less fortunate whether it is people on the street or people suffering in developing countries such as Africa. It would lessen our compassion empathy to each other on earth.
Ethnics of Designer Babies
Ethnic is a pertaining to or characteristic of a people, esp. a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like. Through the designer baby it could potentially dismember the meaning of this definition. This is so because people may start treating these children like possessions. Thinking they can have the car in red white or black they can have different eye colour or skin colour. It may even get to the point where people are not satisfied and return with the bill with the child in hand expecting a refund. The designer baby process may also run into problems to with religions. As they do not believe in unnatural birth or how this could be compared to abortion as mothers and father choose which children they like better and discarding other children.
Social Implications
The social implications will depend on how many people decide to follow, or try to enhance their child whether through genes or medically trying to protect their child from diseases that may occur. A way people may take it to the extreme is setting goals that are irrelevant to human flourishing. People may want to eliminate things under the social pressure such as homosexuality supposing we found that it was a consequence of a malfunction in a part of the brain. Parents may want to try and enhance their child so that the malfunction is fixed although it is proven that homosexually people live great lives. This may lead to more people not accepting or embracing them for who they are nor their sexuality.
Pros and Cons of Designer Babies
The pros of designer babies are that you can screen for many serious diseases such as Down syndrome. They could potential save their siblings or someone else’s life by having the right cells to save them which double’s the life of the other person. The cons of a designer baby are how people are not limited to screen for genetic, and heredity disorder but also for cosmetic reasons. It may also make long term disaster as we could potentially have no bio diversity. It reduces the child’s freedom of choice as parents can choose what the interests, and way they want the child to do or look. It may create hatred for other races that are different, as well as people with genetic defects may be socially rejected. It can also give rich people another unfair advantage creating a bigger gap between the poor and rich. It may also create new viruses or diseases that all other may not be immune to, or we may not be able to find a treatment.
Through all I have stated I have shown you all sides in which could be taken and all that can go wrong if we go to the extreme. Although all of this already being tested in labs we are the ones with the voice. We are the ones who can stop the designer babies going to extremes and protect the foundations of the human race we have built for millions of years.
Sources
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies.html
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/End%20of%20the%20World/Genetics%20
Nightmare/designer_babies.htm
www.youtube.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
