Social Consequences Of Designer Babies

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

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

With technology rapidly increasing, the general public has developed a term known as designer babies. Designer babies refer to children whose genetics have been artificially selected or manipulated at the embryonic stage to exclude or produce certain traits. Designer baby technology, or reproductive genetics, combines genetic screening and engineering processes with in vitro fertilization (IVF) (Lerner 1). The big debate is whether or not it is right to genetically manipulate a baby to be born exactly as you wish. By the end of this essay you should agree with me that designer babies are morally wrong.

Though it is evident that the concept of “Designer Babies” would prove unpopular amongst the majority of society, there still remains to be advocates for a future compromising of GM children. It is argued that gene technology will bring about a new age of human beings who are happier, smarter and healthier. Supporters look forward to a future when parents could quite literally assemble their children from genes listed in a catalogue. A future in which the health, appearance, personality and life span of our children become mere artefacts of genetic modification.

This following essay will discuss about how the advantages of designer babies potentially act as the enhancer that emerge the harms in the society. It is just because of this advanced benefits that introduced the disadvantages of designer babies. It is likely that there will be both moral and safety objections as there has been for in vitro fertilization, stem cell science and early gene therapy. The moral objections range from concerns about the manipulation of the germline to worries about the patenting or commercialization of the technology itself. The safety concerns, much like we saw with early recombinant DNA research include both potential dangers to the offspring of patients treated and to the

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.

Even though there are several advantages of designer babies, this technology also brings some negative consequences for humans at the same time. First of all, the safety concerns, much like we saw with early recombinant DNA research include both potential dangers to the offspring of patients treated and to the environment(Shapiro). As this technology has not developed completely, it may cause the termination of women’s embryos and damage gene pool(Designer babies). Second, for the moral concerns, children whose genes are modified may live in a priority group, which could create a social gap or inequality in society. Based on the differences in abilities and intelligence, opportunities will spread unevenly. Furthermore, designer babies may result in gender unbalance and increase gender inequality because some parents hold desires of having a child of a particular sex. According to some statistics, the male to female ratio is already nearly 1.2 in China and some parts of India. In 1990, there were 100 million women “missing” as a result of various forms of discrimination(Savulescu). Moreover, the creation of designer babies allow the gaps of economic status to increase. Since the process of designer babies requires developed

Technology has had a huge affect on us humans in how we live our lives starting from anywhere between how we come up or find information to how we have the ability to travel the world. Technology seems to slowly be used for more and more lately, It’s important for us as humans not to overuse or abuse the technology we were given because it may have a negative effect on society and the lives of our loved ones. We have come across a new system of genetic engineering known as “Designer Babies” which genetically modifies DNA to set a goal of creating enhanced traits for the babies to grow up with. What people need to understand is that this expensive process can ultimately change their life. What may seem beneficial

Technology is quickly advancing, and many opportunities only dreamt about previously have developed. One of these opportunities arising is designing your baby. Currently, scientist can eliminate genetic diseases or screen for gender, and in the future, will be able to choose various traits. Pursuing this research of designer babies is creating a conflict though. Through multiple techniques, scientists can alter the embryo to the parent’s desire but while this has numerous benefits, there are also many concerns.

Science is now able to better improve human health and safety thanks to the advanced modern technology and medicine that are available. Yet with today's technology being implemented into science comes the questions of human morality, or bioethics. One of the bioethics debates is on the coined term “Designer babies”; on if or where society should draw the line on genetically altering our children before they are born. With the technology able to stop hereditary diseases, the scientific development’s are able to change the child’s “eye color, hair color, social intelligence, right down to whether or not your child would have a widow’s peak” before the child is born. From the options on choosing whether or not your child will look or act a certain

Imagine a future where parents never had to worry about their child being sick-- a future where technology allowed parents the ability to make a flawless child. That future is near, but is halted due to people’s fear of Genetically Modified Babies, which is “a biologically radical technique referred to by terms including ‘mitochondrial replacement,’ and ‘nuclear genome transfer,’ [these techniques] would produce modifications in every cell of any resulting children” (Cussin and Darnovsky 16). This procedure takes the fetus’s cells and allows the doctors to manipulate the cells in any matter they want; then, the cells are placed in the women’s egg. Unfortunately, Genetically Modified Babies are “codified as [prohibited] in more than 40 countries and several international treaties” (Cussin and Darnovsky 16). In the United States, the FDA had a full day meeting on the subject matter. On February 2014, they discussed human modification and prohibited it (Cussin, Darnovsky 17). The idea of a “designer baby” may seem preposterous, but technology is making the concept attainable. In the United States, there are laboratories that have the technology to reach such a goal, but are unused due to the FDA’s law; however, if “nuclear genome transfer were allowed, [the laboratories] could be used for any purpose” (Cussin and Darnovsky 17). America should allow gene manipulation in babies because it is inhumane to let innocent babies suffer from diseases and disorders that can be

Currently, designer baby technology can only be used to design a baby that has very slim chances to have an incurable disease. Like everything in the world, this will change over time. A doctor or company will eventually put a price on other aspects of this new technology of advancing the genes of the babies, and it is here that society

With all the freedom in America, is it fair to design a child? “A baby developing from an embryo created by in-vitro fertilization and selected because it had or lacked particular genes, the genetic makeup often having been notified by genetic engineering” (Dictionary,com), If this were to become popular the world would lack racial diversity and there could be genetic consequences.

Imagine a world where having a baby was like looking through a menu at some fancy restaurant. Imagine being able to choose how a baby will look and act. As mind-boggling as it sounds, scientists and researchers came across an unbelievable discovery: it is possible to design and edit a baby however a person may like. Hanson asserts that personality, gender, appearance, intelligence, hair color, and height can be changed using technology that was originally used for animals (Hanson). These babies are called designer babies. Phillip Ball, a science writer, claims that it is possible to change the genetic makeup of an unborn baby using bio-technology. However, these changes can have more negative effects than positive. Although most countries have not legislated the use of genetic modification, studies have been done on human embryos in China (Ball).

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.