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
12 Left a Message:
After scouring the seven seas, I finally found another blog to comment on! So I wanted to start off by thanking you for that :)
I definitely loved how you tied in a popular saying to the topic at hand, and I agree; curiosity is going to get the best of us. We are always going to try to reach further, and achieve more. We'll never stop, and soon enough, designer babies will become commonplace.
The portion about the social division between poor and rich people reminded me of something else I read where society makes it hard for you to leave your social class. Not everyone will be able to afford it, and it'll create an even larger divide. This, along with expectations for the engineered children already make designer babies seem like a bad idea. I really liked how you tackled the social aspect of something that is usually seen as a purely scientific and ethic issue.
I also didn't know that animals have been being modified to have human genes. I don't understand why they would though, considering animals wouldn't need human genes to do anything they weren't designed for. But adding animal genes to humans to create super-humans is just scary. I can't even imagine what that would do in terms of biological and social balance.
I found your post great to read, and it taught me things that I didn't ever think of. So thank you for that, and I just wanted to say I loved the photo and the caption at the end.
Hello Christina!
First of all, I love the blog template. Admittedly, I am kind of disappointed that there are no chocolate cupcakes in the header design.
I absolutely love the angle you took in regards to the social and financial perspectives on the subject. I had not considered wealth as a factor when examining the subject. Now however, I do understand and fully agree that genetic processing would indeed do much to widen the void between the poor and the wealthy.
Your point about childhood also strikes me as genius. Genetically modifying children would indeed limit the experience one has as a child; there would be little chance for discovery, revelation or imagination. I find this viewpoint intriguing, as many of the other blogs do not think of the possible problems beyond conception.
In your blog, you stated:
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.
I would just like to add to this by saying that the process has not been perfected because scientists have not been permitted/encouraged to progress. If I recall correctly, a large majority of medical institutions are forbidden from funding any such endeavors in this field.
Thanks very much for this outlook; it helped me see the subject in an entirely new light!
- Alfred
Hi Christina,
You made an interesdting point about the world being superficial and striving for perfection. The fact is perfection doesn't really have a specific definition and those people are striving for something that only they themselves can define? I can't imagine people wanting to impose this quest for perfection on their children. It's almost as though they are making them have plastic surgery in order to make them look the way that their parents would want them to.
In your post, you said "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.”" I didnt know that gene selection accuracy was perfect and that scares me to think what physical changes could occur with this practice if it isn't perfected. I believe the human body is a gift from God and not meant to be tampered with. People that get plastic surgery and botox to "enhance" their features really don't understand the harmful affects that it will have on their body in the long run.
Your blog post was definately informative and brought up many points that I didnt even think about regarding gene selection. It is very important for people to consider the social and ethical implications before they make such a decision to genetically alter their child.
BTW, your little brother is ADORABLE and is definately a great example being naturally cute:)
-Myra :)
I completely agree with what you have said here. Human traits are obviously not like car parts and should not be chosen at will. If this where to happen, what kind of society would we be faced with? A place where everybody is happy, a place where everybody looks good and is attractive? A place where all are practically the same? Clearly our faults make us unique and different and you have certainly explained that with great detail.
I also like the way you discussed how being able to change the gender of babies can seriously stunt to procreation of the human race. This is a real danger and I think it poses the greatest risk to humans if genetic research continues and this concept of “designer babies” stays afloat. Certainly, a generation consisting mostly of males can only serve to damage human diversity and defect the natural process of procreation.
One thing I must say though is that we should not allow this danger to stop genetic research, allow it may seem (as you have already proven) that genetic research can only serve to hurt our planet, genetic research certainly stands to make it better. However not the kind of "better" as it relates to human perfection.
Overall, I think this blog post was excellent and I definitely agree with everything you have stated.
Firstly, I would like to bring up the REAL star of this amazing blog. Little Chong is too cute for words! OMG he's just adorable! What more can I really say?
Back to your blog however, I thought that you brought up a very interesting topic, which would be the effect on the "designed babies". Growing up, knowing that you were hand picked must be extremely difficult and probably even frustrating. As you said, higher expectations equals bigger dissappointments and I couldn't agree more. Even now, I feel like my parents have unreal expectations of me sometimes, I can't even imagine having to deal with knowing that I was hand picked. It honestly just seems like another way for parents to have control over their children for a longer period of time.
I can just imagine it now... "Well Sheereen, you were chosen to have the abnormally long fingers that you have so you better play the piano, and be better than Beethoven himself!" And as easy as that is, I've been guilt tripped into playing the piano. Parents who design their children obviously don't think of the affect it will have on them which shows their selfishness. If they think they are doing this for the benifit of their children they are wrong and we all know that. It is 100% for them.
In general, I LOVED the blog. Designer babies are pathetic excuses for humans, and are rather robots. The idea of "perfection" is all in the eye of the beholder, which many have yet to realise.
You're right, this is so wrong. It is not our choice to decide what traits and characteristics our children will have. It is not our choice to decide what gender our children will be. More importantly, it is not our right to take the rights of our children away from them by deciding for ourselves.
I agree with you that children are not livestock and car parts and we cannot treat them like that. They are human beings that breathe and have a life so we cannot just go on and design our own babies, it is simply inhumane. We are not ready for this kind of step, and you are right, we can never be perfect. That is why we should not try to create something that is. We are just humans, and humans ain't perfect.
I found your essay, I mean post, very interesting to read as it taught me new insights about this very controversial topic. Thanks!
I love how you stated you opinion and supported it with incredible strength:)
I like how you pointed out that our strive to know everything is never going to end, and that indead "curiosity killed the cat". That how we yearn for prefection that does not exist. Money is driving our actions we feel that we own our children, thus they have to be how we want them to be. The fact that parenting is suppose to be about love and nurturing your child, this takes away that love and mystery that comes with giving life. We might still nurture are baby, but if we know that they should be like this and that, will it really be the same. I think you bring up some great points and i agree with your opinion. Excellent Job!!:)
Great blog.
You're right, humans strive for perfection, we were designed that way, but you know what, we will never reach it, for only God can be perfect. Even if we reached 'perfection' what would be the point of living? Our lives would be dull. There won't be any challenges, no more triumphs, no more struggles, no more high's or low's. Our lives would be like a roller coaster without loops and drops, no excitement.
Hi Christina,
I like the manner which your blog has effectively addressed the problem of genetic engineering not only in terms of its biological implications but also its social effects.
In a society where the concepts of marketing principles often takes priority, the expenses of genetic engineering will mean that only the rich will be able to benefit from this form of technology. Class differences between the rich and the poor will also be marked by the biological and genetic differences the two groups will possess. The problem with this technology is that it will disadvantage every individual whose parents are unable to afford it.
In your blog you have also stated:
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.
Although it is indeed true that it is illegal to perform any sustainable research associated with genetic engineering in humans (Pointed out by Alfred Chen), scientists have still been quietly perfecting the art in adding genes to the embryos within animals. The research is currently advancing to include chimpanzees, which currently shares 99% of the human genetic materials. By effectively asserting the results from these animals, scientists will actually be able to observe the potential effects in humans.
The implications and goals of these researches are already clear. The question is not whether humans will be able to do it, but the manner which we will use this technology in the future.
Gabriel
Rawr! Hi Christina!
It's almost Christmas :)
I like your blog because you give your own opinion on the topic with facts to prove. some blogs are just random facts that show whatever and they don't give their own opinion.
As you said
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.
I think that the scientists that were using this technology got out of hand and started toying with it, therefore creating a designer baby.
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.
I also agree with this statement because nobody can be perfect, only God is, and boy toying with genetic genes can't increase your ability to become perfect, or even close because everyone has faults.
Christmas! Let's chill? D: Haven't seen you in a while!
Hey there Chong! :) Our technology is defintely getting out of hand; using it for superficial means isn't anything close to the original intentions we had. Sticking to using genetic modification to save lives is the way to go!
"The higher the expectation, the more the disappointment follows" That is so true. Children already have enough expectations to fill out, but if parents are adding onto those before the child is even born, I can only imagine what kind of stress that will cause in their future life. If I grew up knowing I was a designer baby I'd feel differently about myself, my peers and my family. There would be a lot more pressure to meet perfection. After all, is my parents had spent sooo much money dedicated to my perfection I wouldn't want to let them down. If I failed at life I'd feel even worse because as a designer baby, the bar is set so much higher as opposed to a "normal" child. There's so much trouble caused by an unnecessary science experiment on our children.
Anyways, I just want to say that your blogs are always great I enjoy reading them :) by the way, your little brother is so cute!
- Gelica!
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