“Stop running around the house Bradley!” The mother rubbed her aching temples and sat down on the couch. Bradley jumped over her legs, but not anticipating the landing fell face flat on the floor. As soon as the pain registered in his brain, he began to cry. The mother attempted to soothe baby, Bradley, but nothing was working. The mother sagged on the couch and accepted her ultimate defeat. As if magic the T.V. blared louder as if announcing its’ presence. “Are you tired of your child’s terrible behavior? Do you wish to design the perfect child? If you answered yes to those questions, then you are in luck come down to the clinic and design your baby. The mother’s eyes widen in anticipation and called up her husband to tell him she wants to design her next child.
Yeah she did say design her baby. It’s funny how in the not so distant future this will be a very common statement. “The process is called Genetic engineering is the deliberate modification of an organism through the alteration of its genetic code. By removing sections of an organism’s DNA and replacing them with new segments, geneticists can artificially select for certain traits (Simmons).” As technology gets more and more advanced and as scientist becomes more acquainted with the human genome more phenomenons like these begin to happen. Unfortunately, there is always a negative side parents find it unethical to have people pick and choose what they want their babies to look like and be almost like
Being human, it’s a natural desire to want other things that people have, whether we like it or not. We are always comparing ourselves to other people. We are wanting to be taller, have this hair color, or even want to have better writing skills. When we’re born, you can’t technically choose what you will look like or what traits your parents will pass onto you. Advances in biotechnology have changed the way we see DNA and how we can alter it to the way we want. You can have access to the way you want to look or have the abilities that you desires. The field of genetic engineering has grown in such ways where you can take sequences of DNA that control these certain traits and place them in your sequence, giving you that desired traits. The storyline of any Sci-Fi movie has come to reality. Genetic engineering is the science that gives us the power to alter the very basics of life, and even with the issues and possible negative consequence of the research, this technology is something that we need for our benefit.
First off, as I was talking about in paragraph one, I do not think it would be right to engineer a perfect baby. In creating a perfect baby we could create “a path toward a dystopia of superpeople and designer babies for those who can’t afford it (Doc 3).” Also, by genetically engineering
Imagine a parent walking into a conference room; a sheet of paper waiting on a table with a lot of different questions on it. Things that many parents wish they had control over. Options such as hair color, skin color, personality traits and other physical appearances are placed out across the page. When they fill questions out, a baby appears as it was described just before. The baby is in the picture of health, and looks perfect in every way.
Living in such a fast paced society people look at new technologies as almost being something that they are forced to try. Biological and technological advances become so over bearing that we almost can’t resist. Although Stephan L. Baird in his article Designer Babies: Eugenics Repackaged or Consumer Options? And Bonnie Steinbock in her article Designer Babies: Choosing Our Children’s Genes, take issue with “designer babies”. Baird believes that this technology has already enabled “designer babies” and now the concern should be over regulation. Steinbock, on the other hand, is both critical and dismissive of “designer babies” and doesn’t believe parents have
The science of eugenics was widely used during the 20th century in the United States to strategically eliminate the reproductive rights of women who were deemed inferior on the social ladder (“What is Eugenics?”). Some women of color, women with disabilities, and women from lower financial classes were sterilized for permanent birth control, and sometimes without their consent or knowledge (“What is Eugenics?”). The eugenics movement was aimed to promote selective human features in order to increase those with intelligence, good health, physical characteristics, and class. Currently, the recent controversy of human genetic engineering has scientist concerned that it will become the new eugenics. Sterilizing women as a precaution to prevent the overpopulation of unfavorable offspring would go against Jonathan Swift’s equal treatment of all humans, Benjamin Franklin’s hopes for human ethics in science, and be a direct violation to the natural born rights of all humans. Also, the controversial practice of human genetic modification to restrict reproduction rights only to people of desirable traits is unethical because it promotes racial cleansing.
You may have not thought about issues that come along with genetics and the genetic makeup of a human being. This includes but not limited to how your child will look, will the offspring have your features, the fathers features, or even one of the grandparents' features. This has caused many stakeholders to debate on whether genetic engineering should be allowed and to what extent. Meaning, should we be able to design our children based on how we want them to look or to prevent them from obtaining some detrimental conditions? Most would base their opinions on the “fun” part of designing your baby and how cool that may seem. In a study by Salah, Yaz, a publisher for Emaze
This method enables the parents of a fetus to pretty much control everything that goes on in a baby's development in the womb. Gene alteration can be done for both therapeutic reasons or for cosmetic reasons (Sofer, 1991).
“He is just like me when I was young.” As many parents say this about their child. In the science fiction novel, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, the main character, wanted an operation to become smart. Modern technology lets doctors easily change babies by genetic engineering. A Designer Baby is a genetically designed baby. It is immoral to change humans by artificial means because it may affect the gene pool, it may cause unpredictable irreversible results, and it’s not necessary
Imagine a world where diseases, bad behaviors, flaws can be screened out. Instead, choosing babies physical appearance, certain traits that contribute to how the child turns out, becomes the norm – imagine the designer baby. With the rapid advancement of technology, the chance of designer babies coming to reality is increasing every day. “Designer babies”, an interesting, yet, very controversial subject in the science field. A more scientific term for this is “genetically engineered babies (GEB)”, infants who certain traits are chosen through a variety of scientific methods. In the United States, GEB has been used to prevent and detect medical conditions such as Down’s syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and different types of cancers (Alleyne, 2012). However, when it comes to using it for aesthetic traits that parents want their children to have, it’s a completely different story.
The term designer children is unnerving at first to many. The idea of parents designing the genetic makeup of their offspring makes children seem like a commodity in a genetic free market. Thoughts of a dystopian society like the one in the film “Gattaca” come to mind. However, taking an immediate repugnant stand against genetic enhancement is not well-founded. A more open-minded inspection of the issue reveals that the idea of parents improving their children’s life prospects through genetic engineering (provided it is safe) is, at its core, not unethical. In fact, some genetic enhancement in addition to correcting deleterious genes to prevent disease is a moral obligation. It is moral to make rational decisions using the science and
Firstly, what is designing your baby? Designing your baby is the act of choosing the characteristics that you want your baby to acquire when they are born. These characteristics can include eye color, hair color, diseases, disabilities, etc. (#19). In order to design your baby you have to alter his or her genetic makeup. This alteration combined with in vitro fertilization ensure that your baby will be born with and without certain characteristics.
“A baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure that a particular gene is present”; the definition of a designer baby is a simple one. A child who, through science and engineering, is given traits desired by it’s parents to resemble their view of a healthier, better baby. Whether that is to treat a mutation in the child’s DNA that could result in Down’s Syndrome or changing the baby’s eye color from brown to blue, science has made it not only conceivable but a very likely possibility, for fully designed babies to be waddling down the street within the century. Though the term “designer baby” is not one recognized by scientists, many journalists across the world have coined the term to explain the quite terrifying potential reality that lies ahead for humanity. Currently, only two types of advanced reproductive techniques can be conducted on humans. One, analyzes the sperm to determine the sex and genes of the baby, and the second screens for various genetic deformities that may occur before birth, thus allowing people to only fertilize healthy embryos.
Attention Getter: Grab a seat, pick up your baby catalog and start choosing. Will you go for the black hair or blonde hair? Would you prefer tall or short? Funny or clever?
The process of creating life by handpicking a beings attributes and combining them to create a seemingly perfect human is a notion that is often related to the fictional work of Dr. Frankenstein. It is a surprise in its self that such a process is not in reality fictional, but an actual method of procreating infants in today’s modern day. Designer Babies, the end result of a scientific process that allows parents to preselect the genetic make up of their offspring, ensuring the disinheritance of a birth defect or guaranteeing the presence of a particular gene (Oxford Dictionaries 3). The process its self is called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis or embryo screening. Embryo Screening is as follows, a three-day-old embryo is taken and one
From a deontological perspective designer babies would be unethical because the idea goes against respect for and the dignity of an individual. The child’s value is no longer based on personality or character, but instead is based on whether their DNA represents the traits most desired in the society in which they live.