Treatment For Designer Babies : A Slippery Slope

Gender of a child may not have much significance for some couples wanting a child, but this was not the case with the Masterton family.

Mitochondria are small organelles found in eukaryotic cells which respire aerobically. They are responsible for generating energy from food to ‘power the cell’. They contain their own DNA, reproducing by dividing in 2. As they closely resemble bacteria, it gave the idea that they were derived from bacteria (which were engulfed by ancestors of the eukaryotes we know today). This idea has since been confirmed from further investigations, and it is now widely accepted. (Alberts et al., 2010a)

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

“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

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.

When it comes to the subject of designer babies, or even the thought of being able to create a 'perfect' child there is either controversy or pure relief. The reason being because when it comes to designing babies there is good as well as bad. For example some may say being able to genetically modify a baby so it has no chances of coming out deformed or even with mental or psychical diseases and disabilities is a miracle. Others may say that in the law of ethics this can not be acceptable. The fact the you're choosing your child's fate is ‘wrong’ stating that whether a child ends up with a disease is life, we should not be able to control it. Which makes sense yes, unless you're talking about two parents who can't have children because

As an expert on human genetics, Sykes details the specifics of mitochondrial DNA and how it relates to human evolution. Mitochondrial DNA is a type of genetic material we inherit only from our mothers, which he uses to establish maternal family trees for the history of the human race. He accomplishes this mission through the examination of tiny variations in different individuals' mitochondrial DNA and proceeding to

The article Replacing the cell’s power plants by Eric A. Shoubridge discusses the DNA found within mitochondria. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) differs from nuclear DNA as it is inherited from only the mother. However, the mtDNA can also contain mutations which, similar to the nuclear DNA, have the potential to cause severe complications. Due to the mtDNA being restricted to the mitochondria multiple approaches have been developed in effort to reduce or prevent the amount and effect of mtDNA mutations.

Most parents note that they don’t care about the sex of the baby or what it looks like, they just want a happy, healthy child. But, as science grows into the realm of what seems to be science fiction, scientists are worried that studies are taking things too far in the field of designer babies. Advancements in designer babies in the twenty-first century will lead to catastrophic events on both a communal and global scale.

Rhodamine is a lipophilic, cationic dye that accumulates in the mitochondrial matrix because of its charge and solubility in both the inner mitochondrial membrane and matrix space (Scaduto and Grotyohann, 1999). The major limitation for using rhodamine 123 is that when the membrane potential is lost the rhodamine 123 no longer accumulates in the mitochondria so there is no signal. MitoTracker probes label mitochondria similarly to rhodamine 123; however, MitoTracker is also chemically reactive and links to thiol groups in the mitochondria (Chazotte, 2011). Since it is linked to the thiol groups MitoTracker maintains its location and fluorescence intensity after fixation.

Mitochondrial myopathy is a disease of the muscles caused by changes in the mitochondria often connected with excess lipid build up, the brain and muscles require a lot of energy therefore these tissues may seem damaged or dysfunctional if the mitochondria is morphed. This disorder is most commonly identified

“With an estimation of 1 in 4,000 children born with a mitochondrial disease resulting in; deafness, blindness, diabetes, muscle weakness, heart, kidney, and liver failure.”2 Mitochondrial dysfunction has is a significant cause of a number of serious multi-organ diseases due to mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or in nuclear genes involved in mitochondrial function. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a commonly used technique to detect mutations in nuclear DNA,is used to determine levels of mtDNA in embryos. Mitochondrial DNA is strictly maternally inherited, generates most of a cell’s energy, and performs other functions that keep cells healthy. “Each mitochondria has a circle of DNA containing

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

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.

Mitochondria mosaicism: Mitochondria mosaicism occurs when there are distinct genetic populations of mitochondria within a cell. A human cell contains several mitochondria, where each contains several dozen circular mitochondrial chromosomes.[1] Since the rate of mutation of mitochondrial DNA is about tenfold higher than nuclear DNA, a cell can have genetically diverse mitochondria- which is termed heteroplasmy.[1] This can affect biochemical processes if frequency mitochondrial DNA mutations is high which can result in defective oxidative phosphorylation.[1] This is associated with pathogenesis in multiple diseases[1], such as those that are age related and affect tissues that are highly dependent ATP such as retina, brain, cardiac