Saturday, October 25, 2014

Final Update

Research Question: How does Designer Babies work?

Designer Babies are babies that have been genetically selected in order to eliminate certain disabilities, or to make sure that a specific gene is present. It started during the late 20th century into the 21st century, however since DNA was discovered at that time genetic modification gives advantages to our world. This technology helps us choose our very own special and perfect child, which it cost from $2,000 to $30,000 but it depends on what you choose for your child. This technology also involves in-vitro fertilization, it is basically a process of egg that will be remove from the mothers ovaries which then will be fertilized with a sperm outside the mother’s body or also known as test tubes. To be able to create a designer baby there are steps that have to be followed. Firstly the scientist will have to create an embryo with in-vitro fertilization. Second they will have to remove a single cell from an embryo that was created 5 days before. Third they will have to test the cell and then let the parents decide if they want to implant the embryo to the mother’s womb or not. There is a way for the parents to select an embryo which it is called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis also knows as PGD. This method is used so the parents can check the diseases or genetic conditions. It is also used so they can create a healthy baby to be able to treat a sick relative and to be able and to reduce the risk of genetic disorders. A lot of people use this technique to create a prefect baby however some people might not even know what designer baby is, therefore they should know about it which includes the benefits, limitations and the ethics issues of designer babies. Other than it also have a problem which is, they are trying to solve a case where a baby was born with an imperfect gene which it can cause them their lives.
Figure 1: This is a figure about the process of Designer Babies.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB123439771603075099


In my opinion Designer Babies really help a lot of people in the world. Therefore there are many benefits of this kind of treatment such as it can improve your human life range up to 30 years old, it can prevent genetic diseases like down syndrome and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. The numbers of children in this world will increase, it will allow parents to give their child a healthy and happy life and it allows prospective parents to give their genes to their child. Other than that designer babies can also help other people that needed help from them such as parents that may have child that is suffering from a disease and may be needing an organ or blood transplant however their parents have no match for his/her organ or blood transplant and may lost their children. However, they can prevent this by creating another baby using designer babies that have a perfect match to their child’s blood or organ to be able to save their children.

The fact of the matter is, even though Designer Babies have many benefits, there are also some limitations on this kind of treatment that we should know before creating a baby such as this technology is not 100% safe yet to be used. It could create classes between non-designer babies and designer babies since a child that was created using this technique will be a perfect child. The researchers are not a perfect people, they also made mistakes which mean the gene that they will be researching might not be 100% correct. It is more than likely a mistake will be made, other than that this procedure is not cheap. All designed and planned by their own parents, however this also can represent on how designing your own babies can cause a big problem when something goes wrong.

My point of view, other than the benefits and limitation of designer babies there are also ethics of designer babies, one of them is that it could create a division between those who can afford such services and who cannot. Therefore economic division could be developing into genetic divisions. Another argument that supports the designer baby technology indicates that parents already have a high degree of control against the results of their children's lives in the form of environmental choice, and that it should release several ethical issues encountered by genetic selection. Other issues’ surrounding this topic is that a lot of people wonder if it is right for us to play god? Is planning a baby too much? How would the designer baby feel about themselves knowing that they are perfect and different from the others? What if the designer baby doesn’t like the traits that their parents choose for them? Is the process of designing a baby harmful? All of this are questions that people wonder when they think of wanting to design a baby. Since these days, quality is an issue for several people and that is why we are turning to designer babies.
Figure 2: This is a figure of how Designer Babies look like.
http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/


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