Baby Designer Babies

A designer baby is the word used to describe the act of genetically modifying the genes of babies. They can also screen embryos for any disorders and could even been uses for modification of characteristics such as gender eye colour and even intelligence. Advanced technologies have allowed doctors to be able to screen embryos for any genetic disorders to enable them to select healthy embryos.

Picture a young couple in a waiting room looking through a catalogue together. This catalogue is a little different from what you might expect. In this catalogue, specific traits for babies are being sold to couples to help them create the "perfect baby." This may seem like a bizarre scenario, but it may not be too far off in the future. Designing babies using genetic enhancement is an issue that is gaining more and more attention in the news. This controversial issue, once thought to be only possible in the realm of science-fiction, is causing people to discuss the moral issues surrounding genetic enhancement and germ line engineering. Though genetic research can prove beneficial to learning how to prevent hereditary

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.

Genes are a complex part of human life, and make each of us different and special. But what if there was a choice where you could genetically alter your child, making them disease free and astonishing athletes? It sounds almost too good to be true, to have your very own designer baby. For the good of human species, we should be allowed to alter human genetics. With all these amazing abilities and unlimited changes we could make to our children, it would be like shopping for clothes at a mall. This may sound like a dream come true, but it can lead to many problems in the near future. Trying to change human genes takes away each person's own individuality, and could cause people to segregate the people who were not genetically altered. Even if it can make beautiful, healthy children, it has too many problems than benefits to actually be any good for humans.

Is this the child that you have envisioned in your future? Or maybe did you see your child with brown eyes rather than blue? Maybe more intellectually gifted? Or with the promise of performing well in sport?

The escalating supremacy and receptiveness of genetic technology to engineer and "design babies," now gives parents the option to modify their unborn children, consecutively to prevent their offspring's from receiving genetic disorders such as: "sickle cell diseases, cystic fibrosis and down syndrome ," or conceivably, make them blue eye coloured, intelligent or else blessed with enviable qualities. Would this mean there will be an increase in the superiority among the rich, both physically and mentally, or will this modification be available for all to exploit, or would we be evidencing engineered babies facing unexpected genetic predicament? The highly contentious issue of designing unborn children to be a perfect "epitome" is thoroughly investigated and examined in the article of, lead author of

Renowned Physicist Stephen Hawking once said the following regarding genetically engineered babies, “With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.” Like Mr. Hawking stated the potential negative effect of having a baby through this process would not only take eighteen years to see a minimal effect of babies procreated this particular way. Although we strive to

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 contemplation of designing your very own baby by picking and choosing specific traits may seem very intriguing, and most beneficial or exciting as a parent. Although as a repercussion of it can cause harm towards the parents themselves and the child. However, genetically modifying babies can result in benefits if used properly, but negative effects come along with the process of it all that can result from it. Genetically

What traits could be changed in a designer baby? By genetic modeling, designer babies are able to switch gender, appearance, intelligence, disease, or personality. The traits selection is based on the technology of embryo screening. Embryo screening involves a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Embryos are created by in-vitro fertilization and grown to the eight-cell stage, at which point one or two cells are removed. Scientists then examine the DNA of these cells for defects, and only normal embryos are replaced in the womb. By applying such technology, the geneticists are able to provide many beneficial consequences. Briefly, the pros of designer babies is indispensable. It can reduces risk of genetic diseases, and also the risk of inherited medical conditions. It can give a child genes that the parents do not carry, which can also provides better chance the child will succeed in life with an increased life span. And last but not least, it can prevent next generation of family from getting

(Thadani 2). The process of “Designer babies” involves fertilizing the egg by the sperm in a test tube outside the mother’s womb, and altering the genes. This procedure is also called Pre- implantation Genetic Diagnosis, known as (PGD). It is noble to eradicate disorders and diseases. Some people use the process for non- health reasons. When the screening is opened up to non-related health, 72 percent disapprove of the procedure, (“Introduction to Designer Babies: At Issue.”). According to a June 2006 paper published by Kathy L. Hudson of the Genetics and Public Policy Center, many people wanted to enforce a line between acceptable and unacceptable uses for PGD. (Hudson 1). By 2009, the Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles were letting parents select their children’s hair and eye color. The procedure brought over 4 billion dollars a year to the clinics. Clinics were focused on the money and no the important things, like the patients. They did not have the best interest in their patients, as much as they did in the money. (“Introduction to Designer Babies: At Issue.”). The public had a very negative view about using PGD for personal traits. (“Introduction to Designer Babies: At Issue.”). The clinic changed their policy after the outbreak of the public. (“Introduction to Designer Babies: At Issue.”). Also the procedure is very risky. The procedure involves some risks to the embryo, and some parents with no personal history of disease or disability. (Briggs 2). If the process is not done correctly and carefully, the embryo may have a chance of being terminated. (The Ethics of “Designer Babies”). The procedure also causes a chance of mutation. (“Preface to ‘Genetic of Enhancement of Human Abilities’”.). The technology

One now has the ability to alter their child’s hair and eye color which Hitler tried to do with killing the men, women and children that didn't fit the look of his ideal “Aryan race”. With the availability of choosing a child’s characteristics there could essentially be a more popularized and desired look that become the trend, and could lead to the type of segregated beliefs as pushed in Nazi Germany. The ability to have people choose their unborn child’s genetic makeup will most likely be only available to the wealthy from the cost of this procedure, and may lead to segregation from the ideal look that the wealthy would choose. A comparable look at this concept would be “The climate in Nazi Germany from 1939 onwards, if not earlier, was dangerous for those who did not fit the ideal Aryan race, and those who did not conform to Nazi beliefs were under the threat of work camps or even death”. Changing a society's characteristics could accidentally rank the people of our society from their wealth, the Nazi’s eliminated the races and unfit characteristics they felt were below them by killing off them. Giving the opportunity to make the wealthy look even more considerably different from the poor and have alike traits would create a more civil divide that could be compared to the divide in Nazi Germany. People would don’t have the traits chosen

Will you go for the brown hair or blond? Would you prefer tall or short? Girl or boys? Its sound scary for me. A designer baby is a human embryo that has been genetically modified, usually following guidelines set by the parent or scientist, to produce desirable traits. This is done using various methods, such as gene therapy or preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This technology is the subject of ethical debate, bringing up the concept of genetically modified "super humans" to replace modern humans.

With the option of designing your own child, most parents will ultimately decide they want their child to be good-looking and intelligent. Who wouldn’t want that for their children? However, this blindly makes the next generation of children genetically similar to a fault. As the generations of offspring continue to be conceived, more and more offspring will continue to become more and more similar which will decline the diversity of the population. Without diversity, humans become at extreme risk to harmful diseases that can lead to huge problems, possibly even race-ending problems as well. Diversity is an immense part of who humans are on this

However, our technology has not quite advanced to the point where we can chose the physical features of our children, yet. But right now we do have the technology to screen embryos that have been fertilized in a Petri dish for the type of blood, bone marrow, and other features that are present. The problem with this procedure is that in the process of getting the child you want you are fertilizing countless numbers of embryos, in other words, creating countless numbers of children, and then discarding them before they even have the chance to grow. For each person that goes through this procedure they have the potential to kill hundreds of children, only to find their one, perfect child.