The term “designer babies” first made its way into the Oxford English dictionary in 2004. The definition is as follows:
"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.”
But it seems as though this definition can be expanded to give a slightly more accurate quick reference. There are two different ways to go about choosing a child’s genetics. The more well known way is mentioned above in the dictionary definition sometimes referred to as “test-tube babies”. The second way is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) which is used strictly for parents that have a high risk of passing on a serious genetic disease. It is an extremely expensive procedure. There is also an alternative method, cloning, but I won`t go into detail about that...
So, these ‘test-tube babies’ which are created via genetic modification lead us ask a couple of simple questions, such as, are the technologies safe enough to use on humans and is it a moral process? Personally, I think genetic modification is immoral because generally there is no genuine reason to follow through with such a procedure. We should be happy with our children the way they are. I think that if we were to start relying heavily on this procedure we would immensely distort our image of natural beauty and we would lose all perspective of what is so great in one another and what makes us unique. I think that our world is slowly spiralling down and this is not something we should be concerning ourselves with. I think it will only negatively affect the human population so why not deal with negative impacts we already have, such as global warming, than create new ones. Also, don’t you want a child that you can say is a 100% natural product of you and your loved one? I would be embarrassed to admit that my child was some science experiment. Anyways, not only are these kinds of designer babies unethical and immoral but there can be several complications to genetic modification! By introducing a new gene somewhere in a human (or any living thing) you can be affecting the way other genes work, some that may be necessary to survive, also, genes do more than just one thing, so by introducing one gene to do one job may start to do something else later on! Another complication is that in order to affect a specific gene we need to use a certain combination, so the process is much more complex than it actually seems to the average person!
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis, on the other hand, does not seem unethical in my opinion. I feel as though I cannot talk on behalf of someone that is in a situation to consider such a procedure because I have no idea what that would feel like. I dream of growing up and having my own family and if there was a chance that I could pass on something terrible like a genetic disorder to my children I would probably want to do anything to help them. But I think I’d rather just not know of such a thing and deal with whatever comes next. I think that life might have been better back in the day before technology started getting out of hand because no one knew any better. No one knew such ridiculous thing were possible! Anyways, getting more on track, this process also had several complications and is not 100% safe. Like I mentioned before it is also very expensive!! The whole process is as follows: a collection of embryos is created for the couple by in vitro fertilization. The embryos are then grown to the eight-cell stage, this is when a couple of cells may be removed and examined for genetic variants connected with the particular disease. Only the embryos without the particular variants are put into the womb. This process does not deal with genetic modification so it does not have the same risks as the process mentioned before, the biggest risk of PGD is the negative effect on the well-being of the person created via PGD due to the removal of cells from the eight-cell embryos. FYI, PGD has been around for less than a decade so take that into consideration before you decide to try it (hopefully no one reading this will have to make such a choice anytime soon... or ever for that matter). For more detailed information check out this video on youtube! It is a BBC documentary about the study done at Princeton University: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9ep4B9Hw0
On a more personal note, considering we go to a Catholic school I am assuming that most of us are content living in God’s image. I don’t want to get all corny and cliché but we are all unique and we shouldn’t want to change that for ourselves or for our future children. I believe that God put each of us on this earth for a reason and we are all meant to be the way we are. Our features and personalities will all affect other people’s lives and make us who we are. I do not think that we should be interfering; I think it will only hurt us in the long run. Also, after recently learning about Hinduism I found the concept of Dharma very interesting. The belief that we are born to be what we become. For example, your family doctor... it was his dharma to become a doctor. Like how people would describe a good soccer player to “have it in his blood,” that type of thing. I think that we shouldn’t try to change ourselves because we are all born to be something special.
For me this is such a huge topic and it isn’t easy to cover in one little bio blog but I tried my best. I could probably go on and on about designer babies for a while... I think it would slowly start to make less sense though! So I’ll stop here before I get too caught up. Happy New Year everyone!! :)
Sources:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://wiki.ucalgary.ca/images/1/10/Designer_baby.jpg
http://www.goldprodukt.de/wearables/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/designer-babies.jpg
8 comments:
Hey Olivia! Awsome blog!
I do agree with you. This kind of technology should only be used for medical purposes. If i knew that some genetic disorder could be passed onto my kids, i would want to do everything I could do to protect them.
I totally did not know that the term "designer baby" is in the dictionary. Its scary to think that this has become such a big thing in our culture and society that its in there. Designing babies is wrong and I agree..I would be embarassed to have a designer kid..I don't care how good they look. I didn't realize how dangerous these procedure were. The fact that cellls are removed at such an early atage donsn't sound very good. You also made a god point by saying how new this technology is. We can't tell if this would affect people later on in life. Sometimes it takes years for new medications to go on the market for the same reasons...the side effects. What kind of parent would be willing to risck this all so they can have a better looking kid.
Olivia! Your blog was amazing! I hope you did well on it. I agree with what you had to say because after learning about Hinduism and Dharma, when you think about it, a lot of things that happen when your younger make you who you want to be when you grow up. Having a disease is the same. You learn to become stronger and deal with life the way it is. It is the foundation of who we become and who we are - which makes us so unique. I think its crazy how science has led to test tube babies.. What has the world come to! But anyway, great blog.
Really great job on this Olivia (or should I say OG? haha)
You touched on a lot of topics I mentioned in my own blog, such as the process of in vitro fertilisation. The whole thing flowed nicely and was well-written. You also came to basically the same conclusion as I did; designer babies are a bad idea, unless the genes are modified to prevent some kind of genetic disease. But I think I feel a bit more strongly than you about correcting genetic diseases. I believe that if a baby has a severe genetic disease that will cause much hardship, the parents have a responsibility to try and prevent it. And I'm also not 100% against designer babies, I'm just against the fact that some families will be able to afford it while others won't. If it was free and readily available, I'd be more open to it.
Anyways, good job, obviously you did your research and you brought up excellent points about the loss of uniqueness and individuality with the creation of designer babies.
Keep 'em comin! (lol that was a bit lame)
Hey Oli G :)
awesome blog as always!
talk about a whole lot of info in one little blog. I do feel that you covered the majority of what people should know about 'Designer Babies' and how at the end of the day, we are messing with 'God's creations.' It's funny, we've been hearing it since we were kids, how we are all creations of God, and how he hand crafted each and everyone of us, but we truly dont realize it until someone begins to ulter his work. I dont know how one ( in my case, a catholic) could live with themselves and change the work of God just to 'fit in' or have the 'it' feature or hair colour. Have we all forgotten that our lives aren't all about appearence? Gotta love the media!
Anyways, props on the blog!
*fist pump*
:)
First of all, great job Olivia; you managed to get through the complex science of it all while keeping it interesting.
I think it's crazy that we've turned so many things that used to be science fiction into reality. However, we can't get too ahead of ourselves. After all, some of the worst things happen because of the best of intentions.
The way I see it, we dont NEED to make these "perfect" humans; we're taught to love ourselves (and others) for who they are, and not love them in spite of their flaws, but because of their flaws, it's what makes us human. Personally, I only support the use of designer babies if it's to cure genetic disorders or save lives (like in My Sister's Keeper)
That's about all I have to say, but once again, great work!!!
OLIVIA! First off, I would like to say that your blog was very well written!I totally agree with you when you said "I would be embarassed to admit that my child was just a scientific exeriment," for I would feel the same.On the other hand, I would use PGD or IVF to help minimize the chance of my child recieveing a genetic disease! I found it very clever how you incorporated what you learned about Hinduism in your blog!And on the Dharma topic, you are very right, "we are born to be what we become," but do you really think that people go by these ways anymore? Media is such an influence on the society today, that people will go to such extreme heights (like PGD ) just for physical appearance. Oh what a world we live in! Anyways, great blog again!
Hi Olivia! :) First off I want to say that your blog was very well written and I enjoyed reading it. I really agree with you on the idea of genetic modification being immoral. It's not like the doctors are saving lives with this technology; it's unnecessary and the only thing it brings is problems for the human race. Aside from the ethics of genetic modification, it slipped my mind at how this can actually be really dangerous for our children. All new science experiments have risks and I defintely wouldn't want my baby going under any unnecessary risks. The only time I'd put my kid under risk for science would be if he or she was a cancer patient or needed a new limb. Only cases of extremity call for big science experiments; the fact that your kid might not have the right size nose or be smart enough for your standards isn't good enough of a reason to put them under sucha high risk.
I also agree with your note on dharma; we're born to be what we would naturally become. Messing with that is like messing with God's image and plan for us and nobody has the right to do that. Again, great blog! :)
- Gelica
Heey Olive!
I loved your blog. As I read on, I agreed on numerous things! Such as, "if we were to start relying heavily on this procedure we would immensely distort our image of natural beauty and we would lose all perspective of what is so great in one another and what makes us unique." So true! In the future, if doing this for physical beauty, we're not going to look natural anymore! Everyone's going to start looking the same. Where's the fun in that?! And yes, as you mentioned, it isn't 100% safe. Things can go wrong during this procedure. As us Christians, I also touched upon not interfering with God's amazing creation, and to not change what he has planned for us!
You did great kiddo :)
-Bianca
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