Designer babies - this is one touchy topic. The real center of this issue is whether or not things are getting out of hand. At first (before I even saw this blog topic), I thought that research into genetics explained a lot of things, but..." curiosity killed the cat". In the previous blog, we discussed that some technologies were killing the earth. Is the creation of technology to understand things really that crucial to our survival? But with this unit, we learned about genetic-related disorders. With "designing" your child, you can help create their genetic make-up, so that your child will not have faulty genes that can lead to diseases such as cystic fibrosis. This is the original intention of genetic technology and this is not technology getting out of hand.
If you think about, you wouldn't be against people using technology to find a cure for cancer (Heck, you've probably done some kind of fundraising to help the cause!). People always say though, that the cure for sickness, whether it is STIs or the influenza, prevention is always key. Cancer is hard to prevent, but with this new information, genetic-related disorders can be prevented. Maybe this is the cure to erase sickness like Huntington's chorea and hemophilia.
Okay, but let's snap back to reality. When you have a way of creating a beautiful world of beautiful people, people are going to want a piece of it. We live in a superficial world, and it is not farfetched for people to want to have build the most outer attractive children with certain qualities in their personality. We live in a culture so obsessed with good looks and the magic of perfection. Experts say that we can expect to design our children in the way we want to them to behave and act. This distorts the original intention of genetic research, which will create chaos and debates on ethical and social implications. People are already taking sides on whether this is right or wrong, thus we know that technology is getting out of hand.
ETHICAL and SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
In my opinion, this is so wrong. Imagine a world where everyone looks the same. We might as well have robots. In the Time Magazine, it says "Adapting a technique used on livestock, researchers at the Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax took advantage of a simple rule of biology: girls have two X chromosomes, while boys have one X and one Y." and "... parents may be going to fertility clinics and picking from a list of options the way car buyers order air conditioning and chrome-alloy wheels." Children are NOT livestock or car parts -- they are living human-beings, who have emotions and feelings. You can’t put expectations on a child before they are even born. What if they don’t turn out just as their parents wanted? The higher the expectation, the more the disappointment follows, if what you put your hope into doesn’t meet your standards. This is especially so, when money is involved with such a costly procedure. It is such a sad truth that money rules our society and culture.
Yes, money plays an important factor in our society. Ever hear the saying, “The poor get poorer and the rich get richer.”? Well that is what will happen when people get to select the traits of their children. The division between these two social classes will grow bigger, as only the rich will get to participate in this process. Only they will have “perfect” children.
Upon research, I stumbled on a possibility that I never even thought of. In places like China, only males are preferred. Having everyone choose to have a boy will mean that there can be an entire generation of males. What happens to their population, when procreating becomes a problem? Yes, this is an extreme scenario, but no one really knows what will happen when gene selection practices are available.
For the child, imagine being in a classroom, with half of the children genetically modified and half who are not. Growing up as a child will be different, when the way they were brought to be were different from others. Imagine growing up, knowing that your parents selected you from the way you look to the way you act—they controlled you. You have a higher expectation and must live up to who your parents intended you to be. At least for you now, you can tell your parents that you are just who you, because God made you that way. Also, exactly what kind of message do parents who will participate in this process send? Superficiality and shallowness will just deepen from generation to generation.
This leads to some very important questions that prospecting parents need to ask themselves: is it that important for your child to have “good traits”? What are “good” traits? Why is this such a big influence—will your feelings toward a normal child and a child who has their genes pre-selected be different?
There are a lot of things that needs to be discussed when it comes to this issue.
The good thing is that scientists have not perfected gene selection accuracy and they have not been able to validate that it is a completely safe practice.
In fact ... (WARNING! Animal Lovers...you may want to skip this part!)
On this website, I found the following information:
“Animal studies have shown that this type of genetic engineering is unpredictable. There is a huge risk that we may produce physical changes, or even change the child's personality. Mice whose genes had been changed to make them more muscular, unexpectedly became very timid compared to other non-genetically engineered mice!
However, some scientists think they will become more certain about how a gene will act if it is engineered into a person or an animal.
Will future humans have animal genes added to them to give them superhuman abilities? This really could happen. Human genes have been engineered into animals for years.”
Okay, so this is insane, for two reasons. We don’t know what effects can take place, which means our search for perfection will result in faults anyway. The second thing is that...we are debating whether selecting the genes of a child is ethical, yet there is the potential that we can have the genes of an animal?! When will we be content?
I guess the answer is never. Look at what one person said in an interview with Time Magazine:
“"There may be problems," admits James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 made all this possible. "But I don't believe we can let the government start dictating the decisions people make about what sorts of families they'll have."
Like SERIOUSLY? Yes, the government cannot dictate the kind of family you have...but somewhere along the lines...we think we can. We think we are so entitled to everything, truth is...we’re not, and that is why there is a downside to every upside. So I've thought again as to whether or not someone can actually be perfect. The answer is still no. It might be perfection in your eyes, but it's just artificial in mine.
Bionet. (2002). Right and Wrongs. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from BIONET: http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_eth.htm
CBS. (2009, March 3). "Designer Babies" Ethical? Retrieved October 23, 2009, from CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/03/earlyshow/health/main4840346.shtml? tag=contentBody;currentVideoInfo
Lemonick, M., Park, A., & Thompson, D. (1999, January 11). Designer Babies. Retrieved October 23, 2009, from TIME: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987-3,00.html
