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>.