Honestly, I had no idea that people will eventually be able to pick and choose what genes they want for their children. When I first read this bio-blog topic, I was surprisingly interested at the fact that parents would actually want their children to have traits that were specifically chosen out them. Whatever happened to waiting nine months and just giving birth to their child, I guess you can say “normally.” All this choosing of “I want my child to have this hair” or “these eyes” really makes me wonder why parents would want such a thing. Maybe I just prefer everything to be, natural? Altering a child to have certain traits is definitely, what I personally think, is wrong. But although it is pretty obvious I’m against “designer babies” I do feel it is appropriate to alter a child if it concerns their health being on the line, such as a disease/ disorder.
The advancement of technology has provided humans with more opportunities and more open decisions. In the case of designer babies, I feel that technology is trying to play God –probably like everything else nowadays. Like mentioned earlier, I feel it is morally wrong to choose how you want your child to look and be like, while at the same time, I feel designing a baby to avoid disorders and/or diseases is an okay thing to do.
It is important to keep in mind that a child is a blessing from God, not just a “thing” we can pick and choose to play around with.
There have been some controversy about designer babies, and one of those examples are James Hughes. When a Los Angeles fertility clinic offered to allow parents to choose their child’s hair and eye colour, the public was outraged. On March 2, the clinic was then shut down leaving transhumanist author James Hughes to say it “is a shame.”
(According to the source of Wikipedia tanshumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities.)
Basically, Hughes argues with the fact that if nobody gets hurt while creating a designer babies than what’s the problem? Hughes clearly says "It’s in the same category as abortion. If you think women have the right to control their own bodies, then they should be able to make this choice.” "There should be no law restricting the kind of kids people have, unless there’s gross evidence that they’re going to harm that kid, or harm society,” he says.
Everyone has their own opinion on things, but I really feel that when the time comes that parents can pick and choose certain traits, it is the wrong thing to do.
Already genetic engineering is moving at such a fast pace that individuals can even choose their child’s gender even before they are born! Clearly, it is a very important topic that many can go for days arguing about it. Searching for genetic diseases in a child has already been something genetic engineers are allowed to do, and I am completely for it. Just like everything, there are pros and cons –and I find the good thing that we can get from designer babies is the fact that we can remove any potential harm from a child, because really…who wants’ their child to be harmed? There is a difference between doing something for yourself, and doing something good for someone else, especially someone you plan to love for the rest of your life. Choosing how you want your child’s hair, eyes and even height is something entirely different from allowing your child to have a healthy future.
IVF and PGD can be used to help create a healthier life for a child. IVF which is short form for InVitro Fertilization is an advanced reproductive technique in which scientists mainly fertilize a woman’s egg with a sperm outside of the woman’s womb, in test tubes. By doing this, doctors and parents are allowed to reduce the chances of their child to be born with a genetic disorder. Right now, it is only legal to have two types of advanced reproductive technologies on humans. The first involves having the ability to choose the particular sperm that will fertilize an egg – by doing so it determines the sex and genes of the child that is soon to be born. The second technique is called Pre- Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), which screens embryos for a genetic disease –only the carefully selected embryos are put back into the mother’s womb.
I am personally unsure about how I feel about choosing the gender of a child due to that fact that it can be taken advantage of or be very useful. Sometimes selfishness can occur, and parents may just want a boy, or just want a girl. In particular countries, men are needed more than woman or vice versa, that sometimes determining a child’s gender before it is born can be taken advantage of- sometimes even used for selfishness. At the same time, choosing a child’s gender can be very useful when it comes to the health of this baby. Some genetic diseases such as hemophilia and muscular dystrophy can only occur in men that parents who have history of this can use Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis to avoid it.
Personally I find our image of beauty is corrupted because of the media and society. Sometimes we get a little selfish in what we want. Advertisements and television shows constantly promote to us people who look perfect; nice hair, body, height and so on. Parents may get influenced and want to create their child to be ‘perfect’ and flawless, so they may choose what they feel are the 'perfect' traits. I would say that designer babies are somewhat like plastic surgery patients. You’re fixing original traits so that a child will look a certain way.
It is amazing what science can do, but sometimes it is obvious that we get too carried away. Babies are human beings, not purses, t-shirt or a pair of jeans that we can pick and choose what we like and dislike about them. We tend to become selfish when such an opportunity is given to us.I find that everyone should remember that when these babies grow old, how they will feel about being “custom made.” Soon enough, we will probably be able to fix the talents our child(ren) will be able to have! I feel it is a definite NO-NO to change characteristics and traits of a child to suite what YOU feel is perfect. If you are changing your child to avoid genetic disorders, well then, that’s another story. Doing what is best for your child health-wise will definitely help them in the long run and save you a lot of potential surgeries or problems. In conclusion, it is a parents’ choice of what they want to do to their child, but I personally would never pick and choose genes for mine. I feel that choosing what kind of nose they should get, what hair they should have, or what eye colour they should receive is not for me to choose –they should be born with whatever they have with no alterations. If I knew my child would suffer from a disease or disorder, then I would definitely make a change before they are born.
Designer babies, and science at that, have caused so much controversy that it makes me wonder when the time will come when we stop playing the role of God. All it is doing is causing problems in society and corrupting the thought of natural beauty. Plus, you never know. Designer babies may be a problem in the future, and parents would wish they didn’t change their child/children for cosmetic reasons.
But this is only what I feel about this whole topic. Only time will tell what else science will come up with with these designer babies!
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont2.htm
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987,00.html
http://www.goldprodukt.de/wearables/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/designer-babies.jpg
http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/2009/03/03/images/babies_400.jpg
