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Designer Babies Essay

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Designer Babies: What is Ethical? Imagine a parent walking into what looks like a conference room. A sheet of paper waits on a table with numerous questions many people wish they had control over. Options such as hair color, skin color, personality traits and other physical appearances are mapped out across the page. When the questions are filled out, a baby appears as he or she was described moments before. The baby is the picture of health, and looks perfect in every way. This scenario seems only to exist in a dream, however, the option to design a child has already become a reality in the near future. Parents may approach a similar scenario every day in the future as if choosing a child’s characteristics were a normal way of …show more content…

Expecting parents inevitably take extra precautions during pregnancy and during their baby’s childhood. Unnecessary precautions, however, are best ignored. This includes genetic screening and the use of genetic engineering to change a child’s characteristics. Because some parents feel they should take extra measures in protecting their child from certain diseases and possible defects, designing a kid’s physical aspects and traits would become one more option for parents to worry about. No one knows where parents will stop when it comes to the choice of designing their child. People might, eventually, have access to determining their child’s IQ level, as well as special talents and interests. Many people who believe in God, also believe that He determines a child’s sex, race, genetic traits, and characteristics. Even though not every person believes in God, many people believe strongly about ethics involving humans. Scientists feel that the world revolves around medical advances. Although this may be the case in many areas of people’s lives today, it is not always beneficial, or necessary. People may have trouble deciding whether tampering with human genes and cells is ethical. Designing the “perfect child” in many parent’s eyes becomes a harsh question of reality. The concept of a parent’s unconditional love for their child is questioned because of the desire to make their child perfect. If

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