preview

Made to Order: Designer Babies

Good Essays

Made to Order: Designer Babies (Introduction) Imagine that children were genetically engineered to accustom parent’s exact desires of both physical and mental characteristics. Would parents choose physical traits such as blonde hair and green eyes, or choose mental traits such as athleticism and intelligence? Scientists are now able to genetically engineer a human embryo to the traits that a parent desires. Designer babies are usually seen as beneficial due to the eliminating chances of genetics diseases, however, they are also seen as playing God in the eyes of some. How are human embryos genetically engineered to fit the desires of parents, and what are the controversies behind it?
(Definition and History) A designer baby can be defined as “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” (Agar). The history of designer babies dates back all the way to Albert Einstein’s time when Frankenstein was being created inside a laboratory. In nineteen ninety-seven the first designer baby was a success after doctors and scientists realized that the genetic prescreening actually worked (Brownlee, 2002) (Admin, 2008). This was only the beginning of genetically engineered kids. Since then, science has made a huge impact researching and performing on designer babies. In the early months of two thousand, yet another designer baby made the

Get Access