The Ethics Of Designer Babies

The author is the associate editor of The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society. In which, is the area of the news site that cover all technological advances and controversies on new sciences. The article cover the opinions of conservatives and progressives alike on the use engineering a child before or after birth. Although, the possibilities are endless and the benefits to humanity are countless such as, curing diseases, inherited genetics; they are filled with risks. Numerous scientists, ethicists, and other important members are present at this meeting, but exclude members with strong moral standards to have a less biased opinions. Nevertheless, ethics are not unconsidered, which is why there is such a strong force that holds

Have you heard of the new technology that allows parents to make their own perfect, desired child? Scientists are developing a technology called designer babies. Designer babies are essentially genetically engineered children that can also have artificially selected traits. This would lead to a powerful impact on society because there will be a clear division between the poor and wealthy due to the expenses of designer babies. There are dangerous risks, and in the long run, it will create more problems in the future. This is because there will be even more discrimination seeing that pure, non-genetically modified humans will become the inferior race (Thadani). Eventually, the genetically engineered race will take over the human race and this sort of technology may get into the wrong hands. The federal government should take action and quickly make laws to limit the use of the designer babies so the use of this technology will not get out of hand.

Between 1912 and 1932, three International Congresses took place as a global venue for scientists, politicians, social leaders to investigate and discuss plans and programs to improve human hereditary characteristics in the twentieth century. While the Nazi embrace of Eugenics was used for an unthinkable horror in the holocaust, the movement actually was re-invented and nurtured in America and England. President Theodore Roosevelt created a national Heredity Commission to discover the genetic heritage of the population and to encourage the good blooded families to increase, and the cross-bred inferior segment to decrease. Out of

Human progression is a key motive in the field of science and technology. New techniques and designs are made to improve the general welfare and life span of human beings. However, development requires risks and those risks may have deadly effects on future generations. One such debate is over genetic engineering and creating “Designer Babies”. The ability to alter any trait an offspring may possess.

“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

The article “Ethics of Designer Babies” by Sarah Ly Keywords addresses a variety of perspectives regarding the controversy if designing your baby with your own characteristic s desired and a less percent of giving them any disease is a ethical or unethical problem for society. In the first place, this article explains the specific definition of designer babies. Designer  babies are a babies 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. Vitro fertilization begins with an embryo DNA being modified and then introduce in the womb.

Because we are not there yet “These new technologies, however, are not yet inevitable. Unlike global warming, this genie is not yet out of the bottle “( Mckibben, Designer Genes) It is possible that none of the afford mentioned scenarios will evolve, The possibility that the masses will rise up and say it is unethical,or immoral or just wrong can occur, and if the result is, a close watch is kept on the advancements in human genetic modification, then common sense and good judgment can be used , and therefore in the future another Frankenstein monster might not be a possibility.

An article called “In Praise of Designer Babies” ( October 10, 2013) was constructed by Paul Waldman, a columnist and senior writer for the magazine “The American Prospect” for which this article was published in. This magazine covers various topics from a liberal and progressive perspective. Within this source, Waldman claims that the future of Designer Babies may not be as unethical as some people make it out to be, and that society may truly want the potential of genetically modifying their kids more than they think. To fully support his argument, Waldman refutes some of the most prominent ethical arguments with his own thinking about genetically modified embryos as well as what he believes society’s true opinion about designer babies are.

The remarkable advancements in technology and the exceptional discoveries in science has brought this generation one step closer to unlocking the secret to the modification of embryos to our own wishes. Designer babies allow society to customize offspring that hold certain, desirable traits through the process of genetic engineering during in vitro fertilization. Although scientists have possibly found a way to genetically modify the genes of a human embryo, it has become clear to me that I disagree with the process of engineering a child as people will use it only for appearances, be misused that’ll lead to a form of abortion, and create a gap within society.

Therefore, the main concern for future and current parents is the safety and health of their children. With the development of genetic enhancement, parents are able to transform their embryos into designer babies as a result. Through the creation of designer babies, it could prevent babies from inheriting undesirable traits that would result in diseases or mutations that may reduce their quality of life. “The majority of designer babies are created with the aim to prevent the inheritance of genetic defects through the selection of ‘disease-free’ embryos by preimplantation genetic diagnosis” to avoid life-shortening diseases (Pang and Ho, 2016, p. 59). Therefore, with this technology parents do not have to worry about their child suffering from diseases and disabilities that may decrease their quality of life or shorten it. No parents want their child to suffer and die before them, so designer babies are a solution to help alleviate that concern. In addition, besides preventing hereditary diseases, the technology will result in a new generation of healthier babies. Besides removing defective genes, genes can also be modified for babies to become fitter and more improved, which will increase their likelihood of future success when they grow up. Moreover, designing babies is not only helping to prevent certain hereditary diseases, it also reduces the financial and emotional burdens on the parents (Verlinsky, 2005). Having a disability or illness may cost a significant amount of money because of continuous medications and treatment. With that, there is the probability that the child may never be cured or may die. Worrying about the health of the child can cause an emotional toll on the parents. All parents want the best for their children as it is their duty to care for their child to the best of their capabilities. “As of today, these techniques are used only by parents who need the assistance

This same technique would also be able to be used for the development of a technology that could trade out inferior traits and replace them with superior traits. Each individual will all possess their own ideas as to what they consider to be an inferior verses a superior trait, however this can still be harmful to society. This technology leads to a concept known as designer babies in which individuals will be able to select for the traits that they consider desirable for their child (Steinbock, 2008). Ethical concerns have been raised that there can be the risk that the connection between parents and children will disappear if the genetics in the children are altered. Children would be considered a product of scientists and not descendants of their families (Issus and Ethics of Gene Therapy, n.d.). If Restriction Nuclease Mediated Recombination is used across the globe to eliminate genetic-based diseases, it may develop other uses that can be controversial to society, such as designing your child to have superior

The term designer babies is the media’s name for eugenics. Eugenicists believe that it is in our society’s best interest to encourage families with “good genes” to reproduce, and to condemn the “unfit” families. These genetically modified children are considered as the “new eugenics”; “today’s version is ‘positive’: it allows for the creation of more desirable babies” (Tuhus-Dubrow, 40), also the original version deprived people of their rights and liberties.

In the past, eugenics was a popular science used to improve the human population by selecting desirable traits and characteristics. Eugenics aims to improve human genetic traits by advocating sexual reproduction for people who have desirable traits. Current technology and advancement has made eugenics more popular today than it ever has been in the past. Furthermore, individuals can personally customize their child’s genetic makeup by either eliminating a particular defect or to ensure that a certain trait is present. This practice, known as designing babies, is a form of eugenics that is currently happening regularly and many question whether it is either ethical or unethical. Although there are many positives and negatives to designing babies, many fear that the process will eventually be abused. Eugenics is an interesting and diverse topic to analyze and discuss, and by immersing oneself into such a topic, society can understand how to eliminate undesirable traits and deformities by using eugenics as well as moral objections and concerns.

Because controlling the genetic content of the child’s DNA will prevent genetic diseases and disability, designer babies should be allowed. There are many illnesses which neither the child nor the parents could prevent the child from getting. This kind of disease is transferred from the parents to the child by genes like diabetes. Because of these genes the child will get a disability or illness, which can affect their not only physical but also mental ability. Because of that they cannot function as well as other kids, and it might lead to emotions problems and anxieties. So when this technology claims to have the ability to end most of the diseases, the community should give it the best chance. Also, Michael Bostrom, author of “The Morality of Human Genetic Engineering” argues that “the practice of genetic engineering might also lead to better treatment of disability” (1). Opponents show their disagreement by pointing out

How does it sound to walk into the doctor’s office, choose what attributes you want your baby to have, and then having that exact baby 9 months later? Although this may seem quite harmless to most, the negative effects of designer babies are tremendous: the lack of diversity in our population, violation of a specific set of laws designed to protect humans, going against Christian views, and even destroying the roots of human nature. With genetic engineering biotechnology, such as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (or CRISPR), new and unique altercations are being done to revolutionize many aspects of our lives. Along with astounding benefits that can come from these biotechnologies, many people have come up with crazy ideas, such as these designer baby ideas, that could be potentially harmful to our society.