What are designer babies?
Although the phrase "designer babies" brings to mind the image of little baby models, they're not babies posing for photo shoots wearing gucci, louis vuitton, or anything like that. The term has more to do with the genetics of a baby. In the oxford dictionary a designer baby is defined as "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." Sounds complicated huh? It pretty much means babies that have been genetically altered to look a certain way and be rid of certain diseases. This type of "altering" can be related to the franchise of Build-A-Bear where you choose how you want your teddy bear to look, if science comes far enough along in this field, designer babies could be the same thing except with children. Although this all seems interesting, it bring up the question....
Is it ethical?
Is it right to change your child from how they would naturally look, into what you want them to look like? Is it okay to decide a baby's eyes should be blue instead of their natural brown? This topic brings up many more ethical questions and scientists around the world are split. Some are intrigued by the development in the field, some are repulsed by what we are doing to these children. Sure, it started out with the intentions of lowering the chance of couples having babies with diseases by implanting the mother's eggs with clean chromosomes, but the more this science develops, the more superficial it becomes. Now couples can determine their babies' sex up to 5 months before the birth, this may seem great but it has its negatives. Some people specifically want either a boy or a girl, and if they find out they are receiving a baby with a gender they weren't hoping for, since it's at an early stage, abortion is an option. This means you could see a gradual increase in abortion rates in the world. This is not good. There are already more than 200'000 abortions in the UK per year, that's 200'000 kids who never got to see the light of day and it's sad.
In conclusion!
Just like most things in this world, the idea of designer babies has its positives and its negatives, pros and cons. The positive side is that now couples can learn their child's gender months in advance giving them time to prepare for their newborn's life, the screening and implanting of embryos help doctors to get rid of the disease carrying cells, therefore producing much healthier babies. The negative is that the abortion rates could potentially go up, people will soon become obsessed with having "perfect children" both genetically and facially, demand will be a problem if the procedure prospers and not everyone will be able to afford it, meaning the richer families could have healthier babies than the poorer families just because they could afford the procedure. It really is a win or lose situation, there is no in between.
Summary of the article.
The article which i found on wired.com details an interview conducted by the wired team for trans humanist author James Hughes, and associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, Marcy Darnovsky. The interviewers receive feedback and opinions from Hughes who is in favor of the reproductive sciences and Darnovsky who is completely against. In the article Hughes explains that right now all that scientists are doing with embryo selection is changing hair color and eye color, in an attempt to make designer babies not seem like a big deal. Darnovsky on the other hand explains how unethical its it to test this experimental procedure on humans without knowing its 100 percent safe for the child or not. She also discusses how the economy is a problem, she says that if the world can not provide vaccinations for children all around the world, she really doubts it'll be able to provide fertilization treatments for every mother. Both have strong arguments in the article.
Credibility.
The article was written by Brandon Keim a Brooklyn, new York based journalist reporting for wired.com. Mr.Keim claims to be fascinated with science, culture history and nature, so the writer of the article seems to be credible. After a little searching on wired.com I found 100's of other science articles, as well as other articles about embryo selection ad designer babies. I personally recommend that you check out wired.com because their work, after comparing with a few other articles, seems quite credible and reliable.
Article Link:http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/
By: Jalen James
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