While looking more into designer babies I went in with an open mind and tried thinking about why people agree with genetically engineering their child.  After I read a lot of articles and watch documentaries, I did learn a lot about why, but I still don’t agree with it.  I guess I learned more about the DNA transcription and embryonic stages and how the science goes into it.  When it comes to the moral/ethical part of it I still believe that it is wrong to modify your child. 

In the future I will remember this process and it will help me stay organized.  This project made me want to procrastinate because it’s just one paper and I usually end up writing everything after I figure out facts and opinions.  I can’t really separate my work and be organized week by week like how the rubrics were set up.  
This process has taught me many different ways to site my sources and mix it in with my paper without using MY opinions/point of views.  Instead I was actually able to site the facts and make it professional looking at both sides.         

Alex Dolen

Designer Babies

            Designer babies are a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics (Facts and ethical issues of Designer babies) they are nothing new to society.  People have been producing and genetically altering genes for years.  The main concern most people have is whether or not its ethical, but the science behind it has amazed many people. 

            Scientist could genetically alter foods, and do natural selection with animals.   That is what is happening with the actual human race.  Fertility doctors can accurately select and combine genes in each embryo determining the sex of the baby and also take out genes that can lead to diseases such as; Down syndrome, Huntington’s etc.  Our society today is all about perfection and a lot of the controversy about designer babies is whether or not its ethical.  According to Pros and Cons of Designer Babies  you can have some positives like having the baby of your dreams, satisfies parents, can level out boy girl ratio, can make baby smarter, and  genetic screening can eliminate serious diseases.  Some of the cons are: level of human biodiversity will plummet causing long-term disaster, reduces child’s freedom of choice, increase hatred of those who look different, any mistake can alter many generations, rich will use genetic aristocracy- unfair advantage, and an increase amount of unreasonable fear.  People want to have a child that they will want to love and take care of and for some it would be easier if they could choose their personality traits, and physical features.  Others would just want to make modifications for the physical features because they one, may not like the way they look themselves and don’t want the child to go through life not liking how they look, or they just want to pick what they think is beautiful.  

            Many people are having problems with the fact that people can create “their perfect child”.  People against designer babies believe that you don’t even love your child from the start because you want your “dream child” and that can lead to a lot of problems with how people view others that aren’t genetically enhanced.   A lot of people these days have really high standards for their children to be the best that they can be.  That is why some people love the idea that they can create a child that has those traits that the parents will love.  It makes that modified child less original and you never know maybe that parent, or others would have loved that child more if they were actually created at conception instead of being created by different genetics picked by guardians.  According to Facts and Ethical issues of Designer Babies  If you look at things in a religious perspective, children are a gift from God and how they are to look like is not under their control. So, if a parent chooses the gender and in the future perhaps the external features of the child, they are playing God.  Another point that this article brings up is if a gene in an embryo gets killed in the process, wouldn’t that be equivalent to killing a life?  Some agree and some disagree.

            Long term effects can go really bad since we don’t really know of any yet because some can show up as the child gets older, thus creating a generation with a bunch of mutations or other diseases that are not curable.  These enhancements can cause a lot of emotional problems as well like; feeling like they have to look perfect and succeed in whatever it is they are good at. 

  Lastly, most people are stunned by how far our science has come.  I would have never thought of being able to even create humans by genetic engineering.  In the near future many wonder how much further our technology will push itself and actually be reliable and able to have most of the population agree with what it is used for. 

Our technology has come a long way, but it is not ethical to design your own child and think that it is ok to do.  It is morally wrong because you aren’t even giving your child a chance to be who they are.  Even if you do modify your Childs characteristics, would you even want to let them know that they were genetically modified?   After all a human’s life is more beautiful the way they are, nobody has to be modified to be beautiful or loved.    

Bibliography

"Designer Babies: A Right to Choose?" Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 09 Mar. 2009. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/>.

"Designer Baby." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designer_baby>.

Johnson, Priya. "Pros and Cons of Designer Babies." Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies.html>.

Thadani, Rahul. "Designer Babies Debate." Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 20 Sept. 2011. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/designer-babies-debate.html>.

"What Is a Designer Baby?" Bionet. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/db_cont1.htm>.

blog due tomorrow the 12th?

Akhfyc2011. "Human Genetics and the Designer Baby." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Apr. 2008. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C0MR5egORA>.

""Designer Babies" Ethical?" CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/03/earlyshow/health/main4840346.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo.

PGD is pre-implantations genetic diagnosis and that is the technology they are using to create their babies features.  It is created to screen for dieases, and then it is used to select gender.

Designer babies are a form of torture. 

Brownlee, Shannon. "Designer Babies." Washington Monthly 34.3 (n.d.): 25. Science Reference Center. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.

Lists the pros and cons of having the choice to design babies.  pros are explaining that it can help families that are prone to having a kid with a disease or defect so then they can have a child with out problems.  Another positive is the science side and how advanced biotechnology is getting.  Cons is mostly saying how un-ethical this process is, and how it can affect the human race and its future. 

"Designer Babies: Creating the Perfect Child." CNN. 30 Oct. 2008. Web. 09 Apr. 2012. http://articles.cnn.com/2008-10-30/tech/designer.babies_1_designer-babies-perfect-child-genetic-screening?_s=PM:TECH.

CNN is describing how you can take certain genes such as a non-bearing disease gene for their child, or someone not pron to obesity.  Also how they tested embryos on animals first, and the genes that you can pass on for human traits.

Masci, D. (2001, May 18). Designer humans. CQ Researcher, 11, 425-440. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

In this article it's discussing the most recent advances in biotechnology.  Also it is saying how much closer altering the genetics of human beings is getting much closer to being real.  At first scientist have tried altering genetics in food, then on to animals.  Then they discovered that it contracts cancer and other possible diseases.  Also the scientist have thought about how this can affect the future and how it can affect other animals and our food resources after genetically altering the animals, and using natural selection, and cross breeding animals.  Some could already have a disease in their tissue and it could just cause a lot of new diseases in the future. 

References.Begley, S. (n.d). Designer Babies. Newsweek, 132(19), 61.

Talks about the science behind altering the genetics and choosing traits to benefit others.  By altering genetics they mean they can take a certain gene out of any cell to have that certain trait.  When they do that they take a needle and stick it in the middle of that specific cell and put it into the embryo for the child.  They can do that with multiple genes and put it in the embryo.   

Schibeci, R. (1999). Designer Babies? Teacher Views on Gene Technology and Human Medicine. Research In Science And Technological Education, 17(2), 153-64.

After reading this article I learned that most science teachers are very happy about the idea of designer babies.  This is because science has become so advanced that they can alter, choose traits in a child if need be.  It doesn't talk about the moral/ethical side to it, but they're just making a point that science has advanced so much, and they are proud to talk about it and teach it to others. 

Topic~Designer Babies
What problem is this topic addressing?  It's basically saying that they need to try to make the perfect child.  If they weren't designed with what genetics/characteristics that they wanted.  i believe they wouldn't really love their OWN child.  Some people may say that it's just like what adolph Hitler did with the jews. 

Designer babies, are they really that great?  What if everyone in the world ended up designing their own babies.  Everyone would be in total compition with eachother, since everyone is very talented or good looking.  I don't think it is an ethical thing to do, the world would be total chaos if designer babies get big and more into the media with a positive light to them.  There is also a good side to it, but the negatives outweigh the positives in this case. 

Out of the five topics he posted on skyward i would like to talk about education, and psychology.  In the future i would really like to become an art teacher so i can teach younger kids the art of expression, ways to take your mind off of things.  It gives younger kids a sense of excitement, relaxation, and CREATIVITY.  A lot of people in this world don't creativity in schools because they aren't "learning" anything.  I would also love to major in psychology because i love learning about how the mind works, and what goes on in the brain. 

Speaker:  I really enjoyed the speaker that came in to talk about all of his experiences.  It seemed he still can't get over what had happened while he was out fighting.  To this day he still goes to counseling when he needs to because of his ptsd.  When he spoke it came from the heart and it wasn't some fake story that you hear daily i liked hearing it from someone who has "been there, and done that".  His story was really inspiring, and courageous.  I appreciate what he has done for us. 

Greetings from the Flip Flop Soldiers:  In this book the ANA used tons of tools like; knives, guns, goggles, and clothing to protect themselves from the enemies.  The term "flip flop soldiers" means that they trained with outfitted flip flops and that is how they got that name. 

First Combat:   During Tuppers first mission he realized that it was a lot different then he thought it would be.  I learned about a thing called "shoot and scoot" that is a type of combat that means shooting while driving.  His first mission he got a radio call from the Taliban, and so they got prepared by driving the Humvee and motorcycles (mostly went to hot rural areas). A few chapters later he talks about how he almost died while in combat and how he had to give one of his fellow partners first aid, and how difficult it was to do. 

BLOG #7-Feb
Fallen Soldiers Go Home:  When a soldier is killed in combat they are usually found and cleaned off.  After they find the body it is then put in bags, sent over to the morgue.  The professionals would vacum out any excess water or anything that got into the bags.  Then they would take off all of their personal items they were to be carrying/wearing at the time, and clean them head to toe.  If all that goes well someone would put that person in a metal box and send them over states with a transporter from the military (someone who worked with deciesed).  While that is happening the transport soldier has to verify the box every time it leaves and would carry those personal items like; watches, necklaces, and keychains etc.  When all that is done and they made it to the deciezed persons hometown they have a correct military burial.

   

Restrepo

Restrepo was a very inspiring documentry, it showed actual videos of all the men trying to save our country.  There was a lot of intense emotions showed and talked about in the film.  Everyone had a different way of expressing them, and it made me really sad at some points.  At some parts they were just joking around and having the time of their lives just living life with their friends.  In the begining everyone seemed to be somewhat happy stationed there.  This documentary made me think more about the people who fight for our country, and the different view points of the opposing people.  It certainly brings out a lot of deep thoughts that's for sure.  The thing I liked about this documentary was that I now know what they actual go through beyond the news.  What i would really like to have seen was them in the most important battle, i guess. They would just shut the camera off when it got to that.  In the end it was really depressing because you could tell the shift in everyones mood since he died and what they all went through during their time there.