Wouldn’t it be great if it were possible to choose features such as hair and eye color for your children? What about if a child needs an organ transplant but cannot get a donor for the transplant? Designer babies may be able to solve the problems that come along with genetics. They are babies that are genetically engineered in any way to make them different. They can be born in test tubes that are made to give children organs or other things that is more easily obtained from a baby along with taking out bad genes that can cause diseases such as cancer. Designer babies can also be babies that parents choose certain traits for to make the baby how the parents want them or a dream child. They can be used to save many people from death and help parents choose how they want their children to look.
The idea of designer babies has been around for about a decade but it may actually begin to happen very soon. In fact, British scientists have created a test that analyzes embryos for genetic diseases and can be used to determine what genes can cause certain diseases (Steere). Also in 1997 designer babies were made by Jacques Cohen to aid women who were infertile and could not have children. Shannon Brownlee told about how people can genetically alter their children when she said, “Today, any couple with several thousand dollars to spare can choose the sex of their offspring, while parents who are carriers for certain genetic disorders can undergo IVF and have the resulting embryos genetically tested to ensure their children are free of disease.” This means that parents are currently able to choose the sex of their children and if they are carriers of diseases, they can use In Vitro Fertilization to make sure that the future children ar...
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...destroying the chance of cells such as cancer cells from being made.
Works Cited
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Brownlee, Shannon. “Designer Babies.” Washington Monthly 34.3 (2002): 25. Business Source Elite. Web. 7 Jan. 2014.
Edmonds, Molly. "How will we have children in the future?" 23 November 2009. HowStuffworks.com. Web. 09 February 2014.
“Designer Babies.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Park, Alice. “Designer Baby.” Time 156.16 (2000): 102. Business Source Elite. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.
Steere, Mike. "Designer Babies: Creating the Perfect Child." CNN. Cable News Network, 2008. Web. 07 Jan. 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.
Of?"http://www.siumed.edu/medhum/electives/HealthPolicyMedia/wk5Stock.pdf 22.11 (2003). Rpt. in Designer Babies. Ed. Clayton Farris Naff. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 2 May 2014.
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
Ethical considerations into the designer babies’ debate are placed on the basis of the effects that the procedure will have on the baby and the society. Families who are able to afford these procedures are few, and this will increase the disparity between the social classes (Ronald, 2007). Further, there will be an effect on the assortment of the gene pool as well as human genetics, which may lead to a...
Ghose, Tia. “Children to Order: The Ethics of ‘Designer Babies.’” Livescience. N.p., 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 May 2014. .
Genetically engineered babies also known as “Designer Babies” are children that are modified to your wants and desirer in what you want your child to look like. Typically women only use this procedure if they are infertile. The women decide what hair, eye color, or gender the baby is by doing this procedure. In this essay, I will explain how they’re made, the different religious debates about it, and why you shouldn’t do it.
Darnovsky, Marcy. "CGS : The Case Against Designer Babies." CGS : Center for Genetics and
"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.
How far is society willing to advance genetic enhancement technology before it becomes a moral wrong? Medical technology is well on the way to allowing parents to create designer babies, permitting parents to pick physical and internal qualities of unborn children. Due to the advance in technology allowing parents to genetically designer their own child, The American Medical Association (AMA) should create stronger codes of medical ethics and acts imposing limitations. The manipulating with embryos in order to create a parent’s ideal child is morally wrong, and should be against codes of ethics. In order to create a fine line between enhancement that prevents disease and birth defects, and the self-absorbed society that prefers children with little to no flaws; laws of ethics in medical practice need to be implemented. Therefore, with distinguished lines on medical ethics, society will not become divided and unrecognizable due to genetically enhanced humans.
Most parents have the tendency to want what is best for their children so they are in the best condition possible. Designer babies have become a popular topic today. Even though designer babies are in effect to create a parents “perfect” child, still comes with many concerns. Designer babies can have both negative and positive effects on society.
Thadani, Rahul. "The Public Should Oppose Designer Baby Technology." Designer Babies. Ed. Clayton Farris Naff. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "Designer Babies Debate." http://www.buzzle.com. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
However, stakeholders are those who play a crucial part and stand to benefit, or lose from it. The four main stakeholders here are (1) the babies who are the most affected stakeholders, not able to make choices for themselves; (2) their parents who wants the best for their children; (3) the government who is accountable for the laws and regulations of PGD; and (4) the researchers or medical institutions who depend on government approval to research and allow medical institutions to carry out their work (Stakeholders in Designer Babies, 2009).
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...
Parents all have the tendency to want what is best for their children so that they can be in a perfect condition. Designer babies have become a popular topic today. Even though designer babies can be used to create a parent’s perfect child, many still have concerns. Designer babies can have both negative and positive effects; however, reports have only showed them having negative effects on our society. Doctors all believe that designing a baby can not only put the baby at risk, however, also our future society. The process of creating designer babies has not yet been reassured, which have only left doctors and others afraid of going through with this process. Designing a baby may seem easy, however the effects that these babies will bring, can only harm our society.
“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”)