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Genetic engineering in babies
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Genetic engineering in babies
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Who wouldn’t like to have a baby free of disease? That is the dream of every parent. Every time a baby is born the only wish that the parents have is that the baby will be healthy, and live longer. Today, if parents could have a chance not to worry about this issue, wouldn’t they take it? Genetic engineering is a process in which recombinant DNA (RDNA) technology is used to introduce desirable traits into organisms. What if I say that through genetically engineering babies, one can have their babies free of disease, healthy and live longer? In the future, one can engineer or design their own baby to have traits to give them an advantage in life. This technology is coming, and is up to us to decide if we want it or not. The Genetic Engineering Babies might seem something of a Sci-Fi movie, tempting, but ask yourself as human beings are we ready to start acting as God. Genetically Engineering Babies might sound great, but it can be unethical and there are disadvantages that come when manipulating your genes.
When one tries to defy Mother Nature, get ready to face the consequences. There might be a formation of new diseases. We might end up with a new disease that can cause the human extinctions. We don’t know in the long run how the genetically individual will be affected. According to Danielle Simmons, in her article "Genetic Inequality: Human Genetic Engineering" states scientists discovered a gene that is linked to memory, when modified this gene in mice greatly improved learning and memory, but it also caused increased sensitivity to pain this raises the problem of safety (Simmons, Daniel).
Furthermore, Genetic engineering is morally and ethically wrong. Giving a child characteristics that the parents don’t possess will creat...
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...ris Naff. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "A Big Step Toward 'Designer Babies'—and Big Questions." www.csm.com. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Darnovsky, Marcy. "Genetically Modified Babies." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2014
Iredale, Rachel, et al. "What Choices Should We Be Able to Make About Designer Babies? A Citizens’ Jury of Young People in South Wales." Health Expectations 9.3 (2006): 207-217. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Lemonick, Michael D., et al. "Designer Babies. (Cover Story)." Time 153.1 (1999): 64. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2014
Masci, David. "Designer Humans." CQ Researcher 18 May 2001: 425-40. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Simmons, Danielle. "Genetic Inequality: Human Genetic Engineering." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Catalano, Michael. "The Prospect of Designer Babies: Is It Inevitable?" The People, Ideas, and Things (PIT) Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.
Most people agree, in general, that designer babies are taking over and it is it’s a good thing. A designer baby is a human embryo that parents set , to produce desirable traits. According to Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection , Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles offered to let parents select their children’s hair and eye color. Crazy to think you’d be able to build your own baby. The process of creating this designer baby would be embryos modified to predetermine intellect , physical prowess , and beauty. People may question designer babies but “if you think women have the right to control their bodies , then they should be able to make this choice” right? (Citation?) There is a lot of science into creating a designer baby.
To choose for their children, the world’s wealthy class will soon have options such as tall, pretty, athletic, intelligent, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Occasionally referred to as similar to “the eugenics of Hitler’s Third Reich” (“Designer Babies” n.p.), the new genetics technology is causing differences in people’s opinions, despite altering DNA before implantation is “just around the corner.” (Thadani n.p.). A recent advance in genetically altering embryos coined “designer babies” produces controversy about the morality of this process.
... has a genetic code second to none” (insert citation). This highlights how the existence of genetically modified humans brings out corruption in the underprivileged portion of society.
In recent years, great advancement has been made in medicine and technology. Advanced technologies in reproduction have allowed doctors and parents the ability to screen for genetic disorders (Suter, 2007). Through preimplantation genetic diagnosis, prospective parents undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) can now have their embryo tested for genetic defects and reduce the chance of the child being born with a genetic disorder (Suter, 2007). This type of technology can open the door and possibility to enhance desirable traits and characteristics in their child. Parents can possibly choose the sex, hair color and eyes or stature. This possibility of selecting desirable traits opens a new world of possible designer babies (Mahoney,
Lerner, Adrienne Wilmoth. "Designer Babies." Biotechnology: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2012. In Context Series. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
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 diseases, the genetic enhancement of human embryos is unethical when used to create "designer babies" with enhanced appearance, athletic ability, and intelligence.
...ngerous game to play and included unpredictable risks but this is promising and worthy to try. However, designer babies bring a new hope to many families, a solution to pollution and future. People will debate about PGD’s ethical and liberty for long, but the value of technique has estimated and proved. Therefore, scientists do not have a power of God, but they have brave and power of knowledge. If they can ensure designer babies’ benefits, what stop us to say yes?
People should not have access to genetically altering their children because of people’s views on God and their faith, the ethics involving humans, and the possible dangers in tampering with human genes. Although it is many parent’s dream to have the perfect child, or to create a child just the way they want, parents need to realize the reality in genetic engineering. Sometimes a dream should stay a figment of one’s imagination, so reality can go in without the chance of harming an innocent child’s life.
"Eugenics, Genetic Engineering Lite." The Future of Human Evolution. Humans Future, 2010. Web. 14 Feb 2012.
Coker, Jeffrey Scott. "Genetic Engineering Is Natural and Should Be Pursued." Genetic Engineering, edited by Noël Merino, Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,
“It 's not easy as “I want to buy and egg,” states, the director of the Donor Egg Bank, Brigid Dowd. “Not everyone realizes what 's involved, and then when they hear the cost, many just pass out.” (CGS: Designing the $100,000 Baby,” par. 13) It is a fact that having certain traits are valuable, so this shows that the mere modification used on the designer baby, the more the cost. “If you are too rigid or become too obsessed with finding the perfect image you have in mind, the choice can become more difficult,” says Dowd. (“CGS: Designing the $100,000 Baby,”par. 16) The practice of human genetic modification will not be fair because only the wealthy will have enough money to spend on designing a baby. Therefore, the wealthy will have much more advantages such as longer, healthier, and successful lives. If only people of high class are able to afford designer babies, it will cause an even greater inequality between the rich and the poor (“The Ethics of Designer Babies”). It will also create a society based on “Social Darwinism”- The survival of the fittest. If creating designer babies will cause more inequalities and Social Darwinism, why should we allow this practice? (“The ethics of Designer Babies”)
Genetic engineering has also opened the doors for humans to choose the different various traits they wish their offspring to feature by unnaturally selecting them. The unnatural selection of humans may have begun as a result of a new type of discrimination due to genetic screening (Cummins 4).
Pray, Leslie A., Ph.D. “Embryo Screening and the Ethics of Human Genetic Engineering.” Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 2008. Web. The Web.
The moral conflicts put aside, the process of genetic engineering is difficult. Changing the proteins in people’s body differently is an unnatural action. Scientists state that genetic engineering only works 50% of the time. Also, when a new gene is placed in the gene code, there will be various mutations that will definitely result in change but may not be for the better.