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Impacts of science in society
Designer babies negative effects
Effects of designer babies
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Throughout history, a baby would come into the world as a surprise. Recent technology has created several methods allowing the parents to pick physical and personality traits for their baby. Designer babies--the term used for babies produced by these technologies--have the description of holding perfect qualities. After the first designer baby came into the world, the concept of having a designer baby came into question; the process of having a designer baby has many ethical consequences and medical benefits that have caused scientist to research and contemplate this new process. Several different technologies and methods can help to make designer babies. Editing a targeted genome and inserting, deleting, or replacing the desired genome created …show more content…
Fortunately, 500 scientist, doctors, and others attended an International Summit on Human Gene Editing (ISHGE).The delegates discussed the ethical repercussions of designer babies. At this summit, scientists discussed the technologies’ pros and cons. By the end of the summit, the scientist agreed that it would be “irresponsible to proceed” and research is “clearly needed and should proceed.” (Stein 1) Although the scientist decided that the technology needs further research, but the pros and cons weigh heavily on their …show more content…
Some scientist have said that parents have the right to decide the fate of their child. (Ly 1) According to bioethicist James Hughes, “If you think women have the right to control their bodies, then they should be able to make this choice.” James also believe that the term “designer babies” insults parents. The term insinuates that the parents do not think about the child when making the decision to design the child. (Naff 37) However, parents possess certain control over their child by selecting the environment the child grows up in. This choice helps pardon some ethical concerns associated with selection of traits for designer babies. (Ly 1) The scientists at the ISHGE decided designer babies needed more research because the arguments against designer babies. Designer babies can help to cure a family member with a certain disease, but this designer baby would have to undergo many medical procedures to help this family member. From a scientist point of view, consent from the child has created an ethical concern. The production of designer babies have been considered “a violation of the rights of the donor child who cannot give its consent for this action.” (Aznar
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.
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,
For just thousands of dollars more, women going through in vitro fertilization can later choose to have a certain gender with perfect vision, a great heart, a natural ability for sports, and being able to avoid diseases (Angelle). Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis was first inaugurated in 1990. “It has become an important complement to the presently available approaches for prevention of genetic disorders and an established clinical option in reproductive medicine” (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis). This has come in handy because it gives you the opportunity to create a baby free of health risks and you are able to freeze your eggs if you miscarry or if something harmful goes wrong with the first egg. Designer babies are created using In Vitro Fertilization. Using this technique, doctors can fertilize the egg with sperm inside the laboratory using a test tube. Doing so you can reduce the chance of the child being born with a genetic disorder and the parents can actually then on choose the sex of the baby. In some cases couples have used PGD to their advantage to save one of their children. Some babies sole purpose is to be created to save the life of their own sibling. Jamie was the first “designer” baby in Britain. “He was genetically matched to his four-year-old brother, Charlie, in the hope to curing a rare type of anaemia which threatens the older boy...
A “designer baby” is a baby genetically engineered in vitro for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection to eye, or hair color. Before genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization (IVF), “designer babies” were only a science fiction concept. However, the rapid pace of technology makes designer babies an increasingly real possibility. Designer babies represent an area within embryology that has not yet become a practical reality, but has started to draw out ethical concerns about whether or not it will become necessary to put on some limitations regarding designer babies in the future. Vitro Fertilization helps infertile couples become pregnant by joining the egg and sperm together in an embryology laboratory where embryos are
At one point in time, if someone was infertile then they couldn’t have kids. There was nothing that could be done. Not anymore. Now doctors can provide them another option called in vitro fertilization. Not only that but biomedical engineers have advanced this field to even greater extents. They can use gene manipulation to prevent certain genetic diseases such as asthma, muscular dystrophy and even greatly reduce the chances of disease rampant in the family history, such as breast cancer. One of these ways is the "three parent" idea. Reproductive surgeons will use the mother’s egg, but replace the mitochondria that contains the disease with second healthy mitochondria from a different mother resulting in three parents total. Contributing to the genetics of the offspring, scientists are projecting a new possibility: designer babies. These would be completely "customized" children. Manipulation of eye color, hair color, facial structure, height, size, numerous other changes are all possibilities. This is a modern field of medicine covering new ground. However these designer babies present major ethical issues. People feel scientists are taking full control of nature and lines are being crossed that shouldn't be. For example a scientist wanted her kid to look like her, therefore she implanted an embryo into herself and had a blonde hair blue eyed baby, just as she wanted, but should be genetically impossible. This research in designing a baby should be regulated; it is ideal for preventing devastating diseases that will worsen a human’s future life but completely controlling a baby's appearance and possibly their personality, though possible, should be illegal in the United States.
Designer babies also have a reduced risk of inherited medical conditions such as obesity, anemia, diabetes, and cancer. Designer babies also have an increased human life span up to thirty years and allows scientist to get a better understanding of genetics for genealogists and biologists.” Having this in mind, any parent would want to prevent a medical condition before it begins because a parent want their child to live a happy and healthy life without worrying about how they look or having to go to the doctor for health issues. However, this is where the biggest cons of designer
In today’s society we have been coming control freak trying to prevent bad things to happen to our children, but in reality misfortunes still occur even if we try to avoid them and people that agree that designer babies are the new generation are unethical and morally wrong. To produce designer babies you are disregarding a natural process that has worked for millions of
Imagine what life would be like if we could find a cure to cancer in babies, or toddlers. With “Designer Babies”, doctors have found a way to do just that. Doctors do not have the technology yet, but they know how to edit genes in a newborn or unborn baby. In the near future, there’s a possibility the baby’s intelligence could be raised, along with the lifespan of the designer baby. Designer babies should be put out to public because it could reduce genetic disorders, increase the baby’s life span, and prevent diseases.
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.
Imagine going into a building with your partner and opening a catalog full of potential traits you can choose for your future child. You scour through the catalog carefully choosing the quality you think will benefit your child, and once you are done, you go up to a counter where they can convert your wishes into reality. Does this futuristic scene seem a little scary to you? Well, the human race might be closer to this future than you may think. Designer babies is a term used by journalists to describe the process by which we may be able to use genetic technology to modify embryos and give our children desirable traits. Creating designer babies uses a technique known as inheritable genetic modification which modifies genes in eggs, sperm or early embryos and results in the altered genes being passed on to future generations (Steere). I am against the concept of creating designer babies genetically modified to have desirable traits.
Within the past thirty years parents have been able to choose which embryo they prefer after undergoing PGD. Initially this was just used to discover if the embryo had a predisposition to harmful diseases, such as Huntington's disease, allowing for the parents to choose a healthier embryo. This does not typically raise questions on how ethical the process is, because it saves all involved from suffering when the child cannot survive or will be in pain. What then began the discussion on the ethicalness of "designer babies" was in 1996 when the Collins decided to see doctors so that they could choose an embryo for the sole purpose of conceiving a girl, not for medical reasons. This case became publicized leading to questions on designer babies and whether being able to "design" one's baby is ethical. "Designer babies" are ethical when used to prevent genetic disorders and to choose the gender, but become unethical when used to select physical
The question is present to many people when talking about it, “What is a designer baby?” A designer baby is a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure that a particular gene is present (Oxford Dictionary). Designer babies can be seen as a disgrace or as a genetic miracle.
If it seems hard choosing what features to put on a new computer, then imagine how hard it would be to choose them for a child. The options could be endless, from hair color to what activities the child will be good at. Some people think designer babies are a good way to make the baby they really want. However, designing a baby is unethical and should not be used for anything but medical purposes only. Therefore, genetic engineering for designer babies should be regulated.
Like all experiments, results are not guaranteed and often the parents may not get the desired results. This can lead to the adoption of many unwanted designer babies. Other...
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...