The Third Incision: Designer Babies

In a world of 'Designer' everything, it appears babies aren't the only exception anymore.

Ever since the beginning of human reproduction, babies have always been a guessing game amongst expectant parents. Boy or girl, tall or short, healthy or unhealthy are only a few of the questions that run through the minds of parents when expecting a new addition to the family. However, birth defects, diseases and hereditary disorders are real, and there's always the chance that parents could pass on those genes to their children.

However, medical science has developed a way to bypass some of the 'guessing' when it comes to making babies. With InVitro Fertilization, and a technique known as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis, scientists can pre-screen embryos to find a select few that are healthy and disease-free. Only these embryos are introduced into the womb to grow into a fetus, and eventually come out as a baby.

I'd like a slightly-tanned baby with blue eyes and a side of brown hair to go, please...

While these medical advances could improve the lives of children born to parents with hereditary diseases and other complications, there are ethical and moral issues that come with altering the genetic makeup of potential babies. Many people believe that tampering with human genetics is morally wrong; this is especially true with many religious groups who believe that the creation of a baby is a sacred rite for a married couple. When they hear the word ‘designer babies’, they immediately assume that parents sit down with a large catalogue and pick out features they want on their future baby. Scientists then enter the lab; tweak the cells to the customer’s liking, before delivering the ‘new and improved’ embryo to the awaiting mother.

The truth of the matter is that science is a long way from this ‘shake and bake’ baby that many people believe. As of today, the most science can do for your future baby is to make sure that it doesn’t grow to develop some sort of medical disease or disorder though PGD. Parents who were afraid to have children due to existing family problems can now have the children they always wanted knowing that they wouldn’t grow up sick. With this technology, abortions due to complications with the growing baby will decrease, and lives will be saved in the future. Many people hope for a world with less suffering, and with PGD, that might be feasible.

“But Patricia!” you might be thinking, “What if science achieves the technology for ‘catalogue babies’? Is that okay?"

Don’t worry, dear reader, changing an embryo’s genetic makeup for a purely aesthetic reason is very wrong. Because that specific type of genetic engineering actually involves some form of disassembling the gene and rebuilding them for the 'right baby', and that is unethical. But if scanning for healthy embryos can save lives and stop abortions, then I see nothing wrong with PGD. Eventually, catalogue babies might become the reality, but I see that happening in the distant future. As of now, the best we have is keeping our babies healthy and disorder-free, and coming from a family with a long history of liver disease, I’m glad we have PGD.

---

Information from

• http://www.humansfuture.org/genetic_engineering_designer_babies.php.htm
• http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/db_cont1.htm
• http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
• http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/

Pictures from

http://www.thelocal.de/articleImages/28319.jpg

http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/regulate-designer-babies_1.jpg

---

Look at your blog post, then back at mine. Now back to your blog post, then back at mine. Sadly, it isn't mine, but it can be like mine if I comment on it.

Just like I did to these guys:

Erica Wright, 'Beautiful Babies'

Grace El Khechen , 'Designer Babies...the Future Generation'

Congratulations, I finished Unit Five.

Dumbledore Approves.