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Dominique Gonzales
Professor John Haner
WRI 10
13 May 2015
Final Paper
Designer Babies:
Future or Destruction?
Designer babies are in the future. Scientists can already manipulate some
genes in order to determine sex or lower the chance of—or even eliminate—some
diseases. Soon doctors will be able to choose whatever traits a parent wants. For
instance a couple will be able to go to the doctors wanting to get pregnant and
request a healthy baby with hazel eyes and dark brown hair. The couple may also
like a baby boy who is both academically and athletically advanced. The doctor then
will inseminate the woman and manipulate the genes in order for the fetus to
become the baby the family ordered. Designer babies are going to be the new
fashion and technology, scientists are already able to pick gender and notice early
on if an embryo has the genes for different diseases. When pre ordered designed
babies does happen who is in charge of the genes and are people allowed to choose
whatever traits they want for their children? Once designer babies are a social norm
will people with genetically enhanced athletic genes be allowed to participate in
sports? Will the divide between natural born and genetically modified people create
tension and class differences in society? What will the future hold if designer babies
become the normal way to reproduce? With all these questions in mind society will
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either be improved by designer babies or separated between natural born and the
genetically modified.
Fig. 1 Example of building your baby based on physical traits. From “Debate Topics:
Designer Babies”
What is a Designer Baby?
The Manufacturing
Scientists are on the verge of making designer babies a reality for parents.
Genetic engineering is what will be used to create designer babies, “genetic
engineering is the process of artificially manipulating these inheritible characteristic
[genes]” (Baird 13). At the moment we can modify and engineer nonhuman genes
for example; “the gene that makes jellyfish florescent has been inserted into mice
embryos, resulting in glow-in-the-dark rodents” (12-13). This process is a form of
genetic engineering, which is taking the genes from one organism and inserting
them into another. There have been many different type of experiments increasing a
rodent’s muscle mass and a mouse’s loyalty to its partner and many other tests (13).
Though this type of genetic engineering has provided results, it was not efficient, it
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took many trials that resulted in many mice being born deformed while only one
succeeded (13). According to BBC News, designer babies are “genetically modified
for beauty, intelligence or to be free of disease” (Gallagher 5). As of today scientists
are able to choose the sex of an embryo and even determine if the life form will have
certain diseases such as; cystic fibroses, down syndrome and even some forms of
cancer (Macrae, et al.). The process of checking an embryo for diseases is through
embryo screening; embryo screening is used by comparing the tissues of the
embryo with that of genetically diseased tissues (Baird 14). Embryo screening is
only the beginning of what is to come with genetically modifying genes. Within a
short period of time any person will be able to choose what they want their baby to
look like.
The Distribution
As of now in order to choose the gender of a baby the mother must be
inseminated with the certain gender’s embryos. At the moment this process is very
expensive and not a common commodity. In fact many fertility clinics have an
extensive criteria a family and the woman must meet before insemination can be
considered (Suzanne Leigh “Choosing Your Baby’s Sex”). In the future though,
designing your own baby may be possible to anyone, that is, if genes are not
patented and sold for a higher price.
Ethical Issues
The Gene Market
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Fig. 2 Cartoon of a “Designer Baby” and a poll on parent’s thoughts on designing
babies from “Genetically Designed Babies”.
In the future when genes can be modified in fetuses and parents are able to
choose the traits of their future child, who will have ownership of genes? One of the
biggest issues will be if anyone is able to paten genes. Say the first people to
successfully design a baby decides to paten those genes, is gene patenting legal?
Also are parents allowed to choose any type of genes they like without limitation? In
one case a family decided to have two deaf children by choice (Shaw 409). In this
case the children were inseminated and not genetically modified but the couple
deliberately chose a donor who had a long line of deafness in his heritage. If people
can choose traits for their children some may want to choose mild disorders for
them. The problem with this is the effects on those children. They will grow up
knowing that their parents choose to make them deaf, blind or any other disability
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instead of letting them be completely healthy. These children can develop long-term
psychological issues as well as social disorders. Parents can forever traumatize their
children just by choosing the wrong genes for them. When polled though it is a
debate whether modifying genes for disorders is immoral or not (fig. 2). Another
ethical issue is whether or not everyone will be able to design their baby or will it
only be provided to the rich and upper class? Will designer babies be like designer
clothes, where only the wealthy can afford them? At the moment freezing eggs,
insemination and gender choice is a lot of money, sometimes up to $4,000 just for
insemination and up to $10,000 to freeze a woman’s eggs (Fertility Treatment). Will
designer babies be accessible to all people, especially if genes are patented?
The Enhanced Olympics
When people are allowed to design their babies and enhance their children
with superhuman abilities, will they be treated equally with natural born students?
As of now college admissions is an extremely competitive process. With some
schools that only accept ten percent of applicants each year, students struggle to
show their uniqueness and academic skills. When babies are born with super
human abilities such as intelligence those who were natural born will have a major
disadvantage. Those superhuman students will get the best of grades and the college
acceptances as well as raising the standard to an immeasurable ability for natural
born students. Those natural born students will have to work double in order to be
chosen out of the same race as genetically enhanced students. Despite having to
come second in academics natural born people will also have to compete with
people who are genetically enhanced athletes. In the future, when designer babies
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are the social norm, will superhuman people be allowed to compete in the
Olympics? If they are allowed to compete in professional sports competitions
wouldn’t enhanced genes be similar to the use of steroids, which is banned in the
United States. Steroids are a way to enhance a person’s abilities; athletes are the
most common steroid users (Thompson 287-288). This is similar to genetic
enhancing. Natural born and genetically enhanced children should compete
separately or steroids could be legal in order to level the playing field for all
participants. One of the biggest questions in designing babies is whether these
children will look different from a normal human or just like everyone else? If they
do happen to have sharper qualities that distributes them from the rest a separation
can occur between natural born and designer born people.
Fig. 3 expresses the thought of people looking identical to one another without a
sense of diversity.
The World Divided
In the future when designer babies are the social norm and everyone is
enhancing their children, there is chance that a division will occur between the
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natural born and genetically modified people. To the natural born people these
super humans will have superiority because they are supposed to hold the best of
the genes. In the movie Gattaca humans were genetically enhanced at birth and
therefore those people where at the top of society. They—the designer made—had
the best jobs while natural born people were left as low class with no skill mundane
jobs such as janitors. This will cause a clash of classes and in the end could
eventually lead to a civil war. If designer born children did become the norm and
superior human race than our society would be less diverse and therefore could be
easily killed off by a disease. The whole reason for diversity is so that genes are
different and can be mutated in order to survive. If one virus infects a person then
all those people with that exact same structure will meet the same fate as the first.
Designer babies can lead to an apocalyptic world. On top of no biodiversity, designer
babies leave the gate open or a population to look exactly the same (see figure 3).
Without proper regulation and morals the human population can be at risk of
another Hitler and his Aryan perfect race idea.
In the Future?
In the near future designer babies will be available to all expecting mothers.
There are still many issues to go along with genetically modifying embryos. At the
moment doctors are only able to detect diseases and in some cases gender. When
scientists do finally learn how to manipulate genes people will be ecstatic to design
their own child. Before designer babies become the norm a few laws of who can own
and paten genes as well as availability of the process should be considered. Next
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would be to discovering ways of integrating designer people into our society in a
way to avoid conflict and any other crisis that shall occur.
Proposal
At this point in time designer babies is inevitable, the question is how will
they impact our society and will it be for the best? The reason designer babies what
inevitable is because “We have little choice, as the reweaving of the fabric of our
genetic makeup has already begun” (Baird 13). Baird expresses that we have
already started the process of gene manipulation and there is no turning back from
here. Many people have objections towards designer babies but a point no one talks
about is the fact of having healthy babies.
Designer babies are not just a way to manipulate the physical appearances of
children. It is a chance to make future generations healthy and more sustainable. It
is one of our natural instincts to make sure our species continue on and flourish. At
the moment many of our offspring are being hurt or even dyeing because of
genetically inherited diseases, if we have the chance to be rid of these devastating
diseases than we should be attempting it, for the future of our species. At the
moment only families that cannot have children are able to use genetic engineering
and other resources in order to create life. These families should be allowed to have
a healthy baby if the technology is available to them. Also there are already embryos
that naturally get rejected from the body and screening embryos is the same thing
only done by humans, for a good cause (Baird 15). Over all, embryo screening and
genetic engineering for life altering diseases should be allowed and encouraged.
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One of the issues for designer babies is if genes should be patented or not
and if they are patented, who can have ownership? Many people believe that
ownership of genes is inhumane and should not be allowed. People are also
skeptical about designer babies possibly not being diverse and leading to an Arian
belief. If genes are allowed to be patented with restrictions then it can eliminate the
scare for Arianism because different companies will have different genes available.
Though, I personally believe that genes should not be patented and genes should
have a free market.
Will designer babies create a superior race and a rift between natural born
and enhanced individuals? Many people are afraid of creating a superior race with
enhanced abilities. With the studies now, the goal for enhancing genes is just to do
that enhance and individuals’ abilities not to automatically give them a super human
power. Enhancement gives the individual the ability to reach a higher potential than
normal, but it is up to the individual to reach their full potential (Verlinsky 26).
With is enhancement the human species can evolve into a more advanced and
sustainable species. Having people with enhanced intelligence may help the world
find sustainable resources and other answers we have been searching for.
Superhuman abilities may be our saviors. They will not look any different than
natural born children so in reality it will not create a war between the two types of
people.
Designer babies are about to turn into a reality the thirst for a better future is
what drives scientists and activists for advancement in genetic engineering and
embryo screening. If you had the chance to have a beautiful and healthy baby
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wouldn’t you take that chance. In the future when designer babies, embryo
screening and genetic engineering is used with humans we have to regulate gene
patenting and make other restrictions in order to prevent anything severely bad
from happening. If we control the situation than we will be able to efficiently evolve
the human race into a greater more powerful and sustainable species.
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Works Cited
Babies - OTHERS - Teacher Jocelyn. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. <http://tx.englishch.com/teacher/jocelyn/others/genetically-designed-babies/>.
Baird, Stephen L. "Designer Babies: Eugenics Repackaged Or Consumer Options?
(Cover Story)." Technology Teacher 66.7 (2007): 12-16. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Debate Topics.": Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
<http://debatetopics-arron.blogspot.com/2009/01/designer-babies.html>.
Gallagher, James. "'Designer Baby Debate Should Start'" BBC News. BBC News, 18
Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/health30742774>.
"Fertility Treatment: Artificial Insemination (IUI) | BabyCenter." BabyCenter. N.p.,
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Gattaca. Dir. Andrew Niccol. By Andrew Niccol. 1997. DVD.
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BabyCenter. N.p., Oct. 2014. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.babycenter.com/0_choosing-your-babys-sex-what-thescientists-say_2915.bc>.
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Macrae, Fiona. "The IVF Embryo Test That Can Detect 15,000 Genetic Diseases." Mail
Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1196664/The-IVF-embryo-testdetect-15-000-genetic-diseases.html>.
Shaw, David. "Deaf by Design: Disability and Impartiality." Bioethics. 22.8 (2008):
407-413. Print.
Thompson, Helen. "Performance Enhancement: Superhuman Athletes." Nature.
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Verlinsky, Yury. "Designing Babies: What the Future Holds." Reproductive
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