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The Future of Genetic Engineering in Babie Is in Our Hands Essay

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The Future of Genetic Engineering in Babies is in Our Hands

The idea of designer babies has been around for a very long time, in various media, video games all the way to on-screen movies. Only recently through massive breakthrough of technology and science can genetically modified babies actually be possible for the future. The definition of the expression ‘designer baby’ is “a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with invitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics.” (Oxford University, 2005) This type of technology has been around for little over 10 years, but has just started branching to human beings. Farmers …show more content…

This process allows the sex of the baby to be chosen, and allows scientist to see the genes before birth, reducing the risk of genetic diseases. The fertilized egg will sit in the dish for a couple days after the sperms has been injected using a very small needle. Then, using multiple embryo plantation, the egg gets implanted back into woman. Scientist and or doctors will perform ultrasounds after to see which embryos are healthy for parents to keep, an amazing process! Imagine you and your significant other walking into a doctor’s office, and choosing through a books of various traits, physical and non-physical for your new baby to have. These traits would be examples such as hair color, eye color, height of your child, muscles or no muscles, intelligent or average IQ, disease free, etc. Daily technology advancements in the field of genetics make it possible for parents to select characteristics like these. How far will we advance technology just to help humans design babies? The debates rages between the moral and ethical limits, how safe the new technology is, and the required limits on what to allow enhancements upon.
Simple breakdown of genetic concepts allow us to understand the debate further. Genes are the hard working code within DNA, and each gene carries sets of instructions or rules for their function. Together,

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