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Essay on genetic designer babies
Importance of physical beauty
Importance of physical beauty
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Insurance companies may be biased against them and charge higher premiums, since they will be at higher risk for health insurance claims, some of which could be very costly to the insurance companies, reducing overall profit. There would be an unfair financial benefit for the genetically designed, longer-living, disease-free babies.
Genetic engineering can enable parents to pick and choose many physical characteristics, including gender, body build, height, muscle growth, athletic ability, strength, eye color, and hair color (Berlatsky 109). Many fathers long for a son who could be a hunting buddy, an athlete that follows in their footsteps, or an heir to carry on the family business. Some mothers desire a daughter to share shopping trips or manicures, or a listening ear who will pass down family heritage. With designer babies, the gender can be chosen. In many cultures around the world, males are highly regarded and women are devalued. When wealthier parents choose the genetics to
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Many people have preconceived ideas and stereotypes of the perfect look, depending on their ethnic background, race, country, etc. For example, a blonde, blue-eyed female might be appealing to one family but not necessarily to another. To be able to tailor the look of one’s child would enable parents to allow their child to fit into the local culture easily. The issue could be that some of nature’s more unpopular looks would be still be exhibited in the children who didn’t get a genetic make-over. Human beauty and attractiveness are desired by society and the people who are not pretty, or are even funny-looking, may not be treated as well as the designer babies in the work and promotion arena, or in social circles. While there are naturally occurring beautiful people, genetically engineered good looks add an unnatural and unfair advantage in human
Once altered, the baby will have no say in how its cells are used, or traits they wish to keep but no longer will have the chance too. Some designer babies are created to help others through transplants. Even though the intention may be decent, it is still taking away the child's chance to have a choice in his body. Certain transplants are painful, such as a bone marrow transplant, and creating the child to be used as a donor could possibly put him through involuntary pain.
Usage of genetic modification to pick and chose features and personality traits of embryos could conceivably occur in future times. Wealthy individuals could essentially purchase a baby with built-in genetic advantages (Simmons). Ethically, these seem immoral. Playing God and taking control over the natural way of life makes some understandably uneasy. Ultimately, religious and moral standpoints should play a role in the future of genetic engineering, but not control it. Genetic engineering’s advantages far outweigh the cost of a genetically formulated baby and
Neoeugenics is the idea of new, “neo”, eugenics or a new way of creating a healthier race. Eugenics was first defined in the late 1800s by a man named Sir Francis Galton who said that it was basically the study of traits that will cause an advantage or disadvantage in the traits of future generations. Eugenics soon turned from being about the use of artificial selection of breeding to create a stronger species, to being about the advancement of certain races over others. When talking about neo eugenics, it is believed that it may turn into something similar to that of eugenics in that the use of artificial selection would now be used to bring the upper class higher in standards of health and wellbeing as well as beauty. Others believe that the use of neo eugenics will help create a healthier, more stable species. Whether bad or good, the way that eugenics will advance will be in designer babies.
However, with genetic engineering this miracle of like is taken and reduced to petty “character creation” picking and choosing what someone else thinks should “make them special”. An unborn child that undergoes genetic treatments in this fashion is known as a designer baby (“Should Parents Be Permitted to Select the Gender of Their Children?”). By picking and choosing the traits of a child these designer babies bear similarities to abortion, choosing to get rid of the original child in favor of a “better” one. It is also unfair to deprive a child of their own life. By removing the element of chance and imputing their own preferences, children become treated more as an extension of their parents than as living beings with their own unique life. Parents could redirect a child’s entire life by imposing their wishes before they are even born, choosing a cookie cutter tall, athletic boy over a girl with her own individual traits, or any other choice that would redirect a child’s
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.
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,
The designer kids would think they are better than an average kid. The process of genetically engineering a child is expensive. This means the poor people can not even think about creating a baby , they do not have the money for it. Genes often have more than one use , so creating a baby is not the best choice. Therefore altering a gene could have adverse or even fatal effects. With designer babies it allows parents to give their child a better shot at healthy lifestyle preventing genetic diseases such as down syndrome , alzheimer’s , huntington’s disease , spinal muscular , atrophy and many others. The thought of designer babies could possibly take over. But how do you feel living with a sort of robot? Would people look at your child differently? Would designer babies be able to reproduce correctly? The pros on Designer Babies are very intense and serious. They have the ability to give a human everything they would want in a
What do one think of when they hear the words “Designer Babies”? A couple designing their own baby of course, and it’s become just that. Technology has made it possible for there to be a way for doctors to modify a babies characteristics and its health. Genetically altering human embryos is morally wrong, and can cause a disservice to the parents and the child its effecting.
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.
There are bioethics arguing that parents have the right to parental autonomy, which grants the right to decide the gender of their baby (Ly, Sarah). Although it is believe people have been influenced that the gender of their babies has to do with timing of conception, types of positions performed, and the food consumed when the embryo was developing (Gender Selection of Babies). It has been known that these specific methods are not one hundred percent effective, some people are finding it exceptionally easier to go to the doctor and have the embryo genetically engineered to their specific preferences (Regalado, Antonio). Some people are just looking at the few positive effects of designer babies, and are not getting the full research before putting not only themselves, but their future children through.
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 life. The use of genetic engineering should not give parents the choice to design their child because of the act of humans belittling and “playing” God, the ethics involved in interfering with human lives, and the dangers of manipulating human genes.
What extent should science go to in order to “improve” people’s looks? In the short story, “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the birthmark symbolizes morality that every living thing is flawed in some way and perfection can’t be found on earth. Though this is true, people have the right to seek perfection, and what happens after they think they attain it, is their business. The character Aylmer is a scientist, and his wife Georgiana has a small birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a hand that is barely noticeable. Other men find it charming, but Aylmer convinces Georgiana to let him remove the birthmark for his own peace of mind, then she dies. However, despite how freak accident that may seem, today medical practices are safer than they used to be. Science should be allowed to go all the way in order to improve people’s looks because of want, need and to reflect society as a whole.
“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”)
Children and babies today hold the future. They control what the world’s future will be like and even how their future offspring will be. Many believe that designer babies have the power to change the future and develop a new world filled with “perfect humans.” “With so little control over the situation, most expectant parents say they don’t care what their baby looks like, ‘as long as it’s healthy.’ But secretly, they often have a dream baby in mind” (Bliss, 2012, p. 5). Parents can all agree that if their child is in a healthy condition, they are happy and thankful; however, every parent is guilty of wanting a child a certain way. If a parent could alter a child to be completely healthy with no diseases or ailments, have the perfect features and have the perfect personality, any parent would go beyond any limit to fulfill this. Designer babies are believed to have the possibility to complete this; however, the assertio...
Many debilitating and severe unwanted diseases, genetic disorders and disabilities can be avoided through the creation of designer babies. A child's quality of life would be drastically increased if they evade Down Syndrome, deformities or heart disease for example. In a sense, it isn’t all that different to hearing aid, medication for an illness or chemotherapy for cancer, but on a larger scale and earlier in someone’s life, before it even really begins in fact. Some people would argue that changing genes is changing who people are, which they view as ‘wrong’, but genes aren’t exactly the only things that make up a person anyway. The way that they grow up and their surroundings also make people...