Bioethics: Designer Babies

A Brave New World published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley was about a utopian society in which people were placed in castes because of how their embryos were modified. Little did the author know less than a century later the idea of “designer babies” might be a reality. Designer babies are very similar to Huxley’s idea; a person could be genetically altered before they were born. Unlike Huxley’s book, in which embryos were genetically modified due to government industrial control, designer babies’ destinies are determined by parental control. Although, gene alteration can prevent genetic diseases, predetermining genetic outcomes should be illegal because of its negative effects on society; the effect genes have on each other, and the underwhelming success rate.

Picture a young couple in a waiting room looking through a catalogue together. This catalogue is a little different from what you might expect. In this catalogue, specific traits for babies are being sold to couples to help them create the "perfect baby." This may seem like a bizarre scenario, but it may not be too far off in the future. Designing babies using genetic enhancement is an issue that is gaining more and more attention in the news. This controversial issue, once thought to be only possible in the realm of science-fiction, is causing people to discuss the moral issues surrounding genetic enhancement and germ line engineering. Though genetic research can prove beneficial to learning how to prevent hereditary

Although this may be the case in many areas of people’s lives today, it is not always beneficial, or necessary. People may have trouble deciding whether messing with human genes and cells is ethical. Designing the “perfect child” in many parent’s eyes becomes a harsh question of reality. The concept of a parent’s unconditional love for their child is questioned because of the desire to make their child perfect. If genetically engineering humans becomes a dominant medical option, people could have the chance to create their child however they like: from physical appearances, genetically enhanced genes, and the possibility to decide what a child thinks and acts, parents have access to designing their entire child. Naturally, people could be creating a super-human. Issues between different races, and eventually creating new prejudices against genetically engineered humans may increase. People may not realize how expensive genetic screening is at first. With only the rich being able to “enhance” their children, another social issue might occur, giving the world another type of people to outcast.

Have you ever asked yourself is it possible to pick and choose your kids characteristics and appearance? If you ever have thought about this topic it is called designer babies and the technology used to do this is called CRISPR. In 2015 scientists in China tried to modify human embryos so that they could edit the genes of the embryos.(OI) This test failed horribly with all 86 of the embryos dying.(OI) Many people hope that one day designer babies will be a thing. I disagree with genetically modifying humans because in the bible it states, “God made you perfectly in his own image.”

The escalating supremacy and receptiveness of genetic technology to engineer and "design babies," now gives parents the option to modify their unborn children, consecutively to prevent their offspring's from receiving genetic disorders such as: "sickle cell diseases, cystic fibrosis and down syndrome ," or conceivably, make them blue eye coloured, intelligent or else blessed with enviable qualities. Would this mean there will be an increase in the superiority among the rich, both physically and mentally, or will this modification be available for all to exploit, or would we be evidencing engineered babies facing unexpected genetic predicament? The highly contentious issue of designing unborn children to be a perfect "epitome" is thoroughly investigated and examined in the article of, lead author of

He looks at the ins and outs of modifying a person’s genes and what the selection process will be like for parents. Moral, ethical, and economic boundaries of genetic modification are discussed as well. In Tenzin Gyatso’s article “ethics and the New Genetics,” he describes how scientists are beginning to perform unimaginable tasks. Such as, cloning and genetic modification to build a baby. This building of babies may lead to the development of a “super race.” A “super race,” consists of people who are genetically modified in the developmental stages of birth, so that they are born with characteristics and advantages chosen by the parents. For example, parents will choose eye color, hair color, height, weight, intelligence level, athletic ability, and anything else they want for their child. A “super race,” will have everything thing that we wish we had. Although the idea of a “super race,” sounds splendid, it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Developing a “super race,” will Further separate social classes, start a war, and destroy human

Day by day, an accretion of advancements and improvements are formed across the world. Prominent developments occur rapidly, like the use and creation of technology. Technology has and continues to create an immense effect on how we live our daily lives. Its use is ranged from how information is found, travel, communication, and more. However, the advancements of technology seems to interfere with the circle of natural life, life that is brought into our world. It has changed the lives of unborn children, whom are in the form of an embryo. Altered by a new technique and process of genetic modification, that is commonly referred to as “Designer Babies”. This genetic modification, genetically modifies the DNA of an embryo to achieve desirable traits amongst them. It changes an unborn babies development and future life. While it may seem that designer babies can be a positive life change, there are negative effects that outweigh, due to the fact that it goes against human nature; genetic probability, expectations, diversity, and religious prospects.

Most parents would do almost anything for their children to be the best and know that in life they will be successful and ahead of the game, but what if even before they are even born you could alter their genes to give them an even greater advantage. This would allow one to “create” a child who is smarter, taller, and prettier, even if the parents never carried any of these traits. As the human race continues to develop and modern technology continues to advance, we have been able to create new inventions that could potentially help us overcome daily issues linked with diseases and mutations, but although to some this seems like an incredible idea, the motion of one day being able to modify your unborn baby to look and be who you want is not only morally wrong, but could result in drastic environmental changes. Genetically engineering has influenced many debates as to whether the ethics behind the motion are right, and like most scientific discoveries comes with many advantages and disadvantages.

“A certain person’s religious, economic, political, and scientific viewpoint of a situation significantly influences what his or her moral beliefs about designer babies are. Those who are highly influenced by religious teachings find the technology used by designer babies to be humans attempting to “play god”, while from an economic standpoint the inequality that would develop between the rich and poor from the expenses of using the CRISPR-cas9 system is inevitably unethical. Yet, from ethical beliefs that are developed from a political perspective, the opinion was split. Those from a conservative standpoint saw designer babies as immoral when considering the traditional rights a child has, but those from a liberal viewpoint brought into the

During World War II the idea of creating a “master race” was a large goal that was in the minds of the Nazi’s, but this fact is quite common knowledge to many. Whether people know the idea through knowledge of Hitler’s reign committing genocide during the Holocaust, or by knowing his want for blonde hair and blue-eyed citizens. While many know these facts and beliefs, there are still the individuals whom do not know the name behind this social movement, or part of the history and current practices of this movement. This movement is called eugenics, which is practiced through the ideas to remove the undesirable genes and traits of people, but keep what are considered to be desired to breed a better human race. Historically, the process was done by having individuals with the more wanted traits breed and having people with unwanted traits not. However, overtime this has changed, as the views toward the past movement have changed to see it in a negative way. Now, the movement has changed in the form that the process of using technology to decide and understand what genes parents have and if they will be passed down to their children. In short, eugenics is the social movement to improve the genes of humans historically done through breeding, and today considered to be practiced through altering genetics technologically.

The writer of the article compared this system to the fictional systems found it books like Never Let Me Go, where children are raised to be donors for other people. If these traits that are being modified carry much more information than we think, people could pay lots of money to have their child be at a higher social standard than another based on intelligence and personality manipulation. It could even become as extreme as babies being produced for the sole reason of advancing the human population faster. This would make for no families, and children would be raised by random employees. This future is clearly not something that we as a population want. It could not only cause developmental problems, but our society would be in a very obdurate state, since we would no longer feel any emotion for

The birth of a child is supposed to be a time of joy, the uncertainty of life leads to this one point in time. Will she or he be the next president, a star athlete, a genius or just fall into the crowd as another citizen. With recent advancements in science, this uncertainty has become a thing of the past. The human being is now seen as a commodity and no more is valued in the uncertainty of individuality. The parent can now choose how they want their child to come out or develop into. Sandel’s book The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Case of Modern Eugenics is a well researched look into examples of modern eugenics and the problems that arise from it. These topics range from the ethics of cloning, athletes using performance enhancing drugs, and other practical uses in everyday life. Sandel’s argument is that there is value in human nature (even with all its flaws), and genetic engineering will forever change human nature. Destroying the very essence of what it is to be human and scarring humanity. The main features of human nature that will be altered: are responsibility, humility and solidarity.

Circa June 2011, I discovered I was pregnant. It was an amazing moment filled with questions, expectations and decisions. I have entered motherhood. Once you become a mother you turn into a protector, someone that would do anything and everything for their unborn child. In today’s society new technology has arisen in which parents can genetically modify their unborn child. From the way they look, to their gender and possibly their intelligence. This new technology creates a great debate regarding the morality and the acceptance of such genetic modifications. Genetic modifications for unborn children are unacceptable, it is an act of selfishness creating gaps in society and it that can potentially lead to new defects and diseases.

Should parent be allowed to genetically engineer their children? : The ethical dilemma of designer babies.

With the option of designing your own child, most parents will ultimately decide they want their child to be good-looking and intelligent. Who wouldn’t want that for their children? However, this blindly makes the next generation of children genetically similar to a fault. As the generations of offspring continue to be conceived, more and more offspring will continue to become more and more similar which will decline the diversity of the population. Without diversity, humans become at extreme risk to harmful diseases that can lead to huge problems, possibly even race-ending problems as well. Diversity is an immense part of who humans are on this