Speech Genetically Engineered Designer Babies
Introduction ATTENTION
I. What if your future child could be engineered to avoid the risk of cancer that runs in your family? What if your fetus' DNA could vaccinate her against Herpes or AIDS? Would you be willing to take the chance to help your child?
II. Well, 72% of our class had never heard about "Designer Baby".
III. However, 38% strongly agreed that "Designer Baby" was dangerous (SMS survey).
IV. I believed that too when I started doing research.
V. But I found that every source that I looked at was giving the issue great reviews.
VI. In many situations, doctors could and probably would suggest the genetic designing of your offspring.
PAUSE
Body
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I. Children are being born now with disabilities and disorders every day.
A. A new procedure called "Designer Baby" was created to help people become healthier.
1. 60% of people surveyed by Time.com said that they would test their unborn children to rule out fatal diseases (Time.com).
B. Parents now have the possibility of testing genes for mutations and genetic problems (BBC News).
1. One couple in the UK who had a child that died from cystic fibrosis was able to screen their new fetus' genes so that their child would be born healthy (Begley).
C. Dozens of couples in the United Kingdom are opting to have this done so they can give birth to free from disease
1. Over 200 regulated cases have performed in Europe
D. Doctors now say that this procedure is a great advantage because as adults, we have 50,000 cells in the muscles of our fingers, but a fetal finger might have less than 20 at the earliest stages.
1. This makes it easier to detect abnormalities before it is too late.
E. But where is the...
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...inds us of anyone in the past.
2. It sure reminds me of Hitler and his blond haired, blue eyed perfect race.
3. This is not what doctors had envisioned this procedure to be used for.
III. As Dr. Michael Jarmulowicz stated, "All children should be born for their own sake, not as a purpose for someone else's benefit" (BBC News).
Bibliography:
BIBILOGRAPHY
SMS survey. Briana Mock. November 21, 2000.
Kohlenberg, Leah. www.salon.com/health. October 5, 2000.
McGee, Glenn. www.med.upenn.edu/genetics. January 6, 2000.
BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health.stm. October 4, 2000.
Crace, John. www.time.com. October 10, 2000.
Fox. www.fownews.com. October 10, 2000.
Begley, Sharon. www.newsweek.washingtonpost.com. November 9, 1998.
www.time.com/health. 2000.
Bowness, Glen. www.cybersoftware.dasol.co.uk/essays.htm. 2000.
Present technological capabilities point to PGD as the likely method for selecting traits. Even though technology has advanced and “designer babies” are being created more often today it is still in an experimental stage. This has caused many ethical issues and questions. Like anything genetic engineering and “designer babies” has its pros and cons. The process of creating a “designer baby” is often questioned because of its shaky moral platform. Though there are certainly some positive things that can be obtained from the use of genetic engineering used on unborn babies, but it is often wondered if parents will have the “right” reasons to genetically modify their baby, or if reasoning will become more superficial. Here are some of the cons associated with the genetic engineering of babies. If the process is not done carefully, the embryo could be accidentally terminated. Parents may use this technology for superficial purposes; such as purposely seeking out a blonde haired, blue eyed baby for appearance concerns
Ghose, Tia. “Children to Order: The Ethics of ‘Designer Babies.’” Livescience. N.p., 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 May 2014. .
A man and woman walk into an office where they are greeted by a fertility specialist, who then sets them in front of a computer. Here, the couple is able to scroll through various traits and characteristics, then mix and match them onto a computer generated infant so they can see how their chosen attributes will look when paired together. The man and woman decide on a baby boy with cornsilk blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Their future son will grow to 6 feet tall with an athletic build, have a genius IQ, and a predisposition for baseball. The doctor takes their order, and then schedules an appointment with the soon-to-be-parents to implant the embryo containing all those traits into the mother. While this scene may seem like a moment out of a science fiction novel, it is not too far off what very well may be available in the near future. Medical sciences and technologies are advancing rapidly, and in a society completely preoccupied with obtaining perfection, it should be no surprise to anyone that scientists are playing around with the idea of genetically engineering perfect humans. It is one thing to make the decision to enhance oneself with things like plastic surgery, steroids, collagen, herbal supplements, and so on. There is also nothing wrong with studying hard and practicing in a certain skill to reach expertise. But is it right to decide the fate of a child before he or she even has a chance to decide what they want for their self? Not only is there the sheer matter of right versus wrong, but there also many serious consequences to using such extreme sciences. Because these are new, experimental technologies, there is no predicting what adverse medical effects genetic modification could have on a child. Another plight...
"Imagine the reaction there would be if organ transplantation were prohibited because it is 'unnatural' -- though that is what some people called for when transplantation was a medical novelty.” This quote from Dr. Roger Gosden describes how the general population felt in regards to the first transplant procedures that took place. Those fears have since been extinguished due to the success that transplant surgeries output. Designer babies are a similar medical miracle due to the possible wipeout of genetically inherited diseases. Designer babies are babies whose genetics have been specifically chosen in order to allow a certain gene to be absent or present. Having the choice to choose which genes are inherited allow for children to be born healthy and able to avoid mitochondrial disorders and potentially blindness and deafness. Designer babies are a controversial topic because of cost efficiency and some religious views. However, designer babies are a good idea in a world controlled by disease.
In the book, “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult, Anna Fitzgerald was conceived with a purpose. Scientists helped Anna’s parents to conceive her because she would be a perfect bone marrow match for her sister, Kate, who was afflicted with leukemia. At a young age, Anna was aware of her role. Anna says, “See, unlike the rest of the free world, I didn’t get here by accident. And if your parents have you for a reason then that reason better exist. Because once it’s gone, so are you” (Picoult). Genetically engineering a child for the benefit of another, as in “My Sister’s Keeper”, may produce good results for the sick child but bad results for the other. This happens when the endeavor to keep the sick child healthy conflicts with the best interests of the healthy child. With scientific advancements, this sort of breeding for a purpose may become a serious issue in the future. The Catholic Church endorses genetic therapy for the purpose of saving lives but does not endorse genetic enhancement for the purpose of creating a different person than what God intended (ncregister.com).
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.
In order to cure children affected by genetic disorders, families may decide to have another child to provide stem cells for the child who has the condition they want to correct. This child or concept is known as savior sibling. The umbilical cord blood or bone marrow is used to cure, save, or alleviate the older affected child (Sui and Sleeboom-Faulkner, 2010). The hope is that the savior sibling will be a suitable stem cell match for the existing child. In order to ensure a close match, and that the fetus is not affected by the disease, couples may choose to use preimplantation genetic testing which helps them select only matched embryos for implantation into the uterus. They may also decide to use prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion for any fetus they do not want to bring to term (Robertson, Kahn & Wagner, 2002).
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...
In the same article, “Genetic Testing Yes, ‘Designer Babies’ No,” the three time winner of the Science and Society Journalism award of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association wrote, “A majority of respondents said they would screen for mental retardation (75%), deafness (54%), blindness (56%), heart disease (52%), and cancer (51%)”
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,
Diseases may develop due to a person’s lifestyle which will not be eliminated by sex selection. People question about a baby’s health before it is born but “down syndrome, trisomy 18 and others-- were often a surprise in the delivery room” (Oster). Specifically, the idea that designing a baby can get rid of diseases is reasonable, but it can not stop the child from having diabetes or a heart disease later on. Diseases such as cancer and HIV may pass down through heredity but can also develop during natural lifestyles. A variety of things can happen during pregnancies due to the mother’s actions. Thus, sex selection does not predict or prevent some of the diseases that the baby may develop. A survey shows that 50% of U.S. adults say that using technology to genetically modify babies to reduce the risk of serious diseases is taking medical advances too far. On the other hand, 46% think it is appropriate to use technology to decrease the risk of diseases in babies (see figure
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...
Genetic testing has become a highly controversial issue among both the general population and the scientific community. It is a process that exposes a person’s entire genome sequence, allowing it to be read and evaluated to identify potential risks for genetic diseases or diseases that could be passed onto offspring (Holt Productions, 2012). With thousands of genetic tests already being used, and more being established, it seems logical to put this growing technology to use. Some agree that it is a person’s right to know and understand his or her genetic makeup. However, others argue that, despite the benefits of genetic testing, caution should be used to carefully inspect the risks associated with this new technology.
Science has taken another step forward into the future of mankind by empowering parents to give their children the best start possible. We are now presented the opportunity to decide what personality and features we want our kids to have before their even born. Although at first glance, it may seem amazing and feel as if you’re picking the exact candy bar you want at a convenient store. However, are we ready for mankind to play, what some might call “God”? Is messing with the genetic code in our babies morally right? Or is it wrong? These are questions being brought up towards the matter of genetically engineering our babies. Danielle Simmons mentioned in the 2008 Nature Education that “Genes influence health and disease, as well as human traits and behavior”. Well genetic engineering on human genes has been going on for a long period of time now. It has also been performed on babies of women who were having trouble conceiving to prevent birth deficiency and help produce a healthy baby. As time went on, scientist became more precise and accurate in the genetic engineering of human genes (Simmons). Scientist is now able to help parents make their baby exactly the way, they prefer. Now that we are able to engineer the genetic code in humans to this extent, we can now produce a healthier generation that will have our ideal traits and behavior.
... idea to take part in. Genetic testing can lead to a global preparation for parents to look out for their children. The genetic test results can determine so much for the children and what they might get passed down to them whether its diabetes, cancer, or any other illness or disease.