“Designer” Babies
March 2, 2011 by Rachel Jespersen
As medical technology advances and scientists further their understanding of the human genome, we are discovering new ways to manipulate and utilize the genes encoded in our DNA. While some of the uses of this new information are obvious benefits like fighting diseases and increasing longevity, other potential implementations of genetic modification are more dubious. In combination with increasing knowledge about fertility, doctors and scientists are now able to test, and sometimes even choose, the genes of embryos before they are ever implanted in their mother’s wombs. There are both benefits and risks to the fast-growing field, and its certain that it will always be shrouded in controversy, but no matter what stance one takes, there are serious cultural and developmental implications to the rise of the “designer baby”.
As early as 1999, (as this article points out) fertility clinics began pre-screening embryos for genetic diseases and abnormalities before in-vitro fertilization. Some couples, like the one featured in the article, had also begun to choose the sex of their baby. While screening out embryos that might develop abnormalities like Downs Syndrome, Kleinfelter’s Syndrome, and Tay Sachs Disease has clear advantages, it also makes a profound statement about the state of biology and culture today.
There has always been some debate as to how much culture and biology influence each other, and about how they interact in the phylogeny of the species and, more locally, in the ontogeny of individuals. While certain biological adaptations (such as bipedalism for example) may have brought about the use of cultural tools (like infant-directed speech to sooth babies who could not cling to their now constantly-moving mothers) in the past, today the line between culture and biology is more intermingled than ever. As we learn how to take advantage of our knowledge of biology, our cultural norms may influence what genetics our children will (or will not) inherit.
Monique and Scott Collins, the couple mentioned in the above Time Magazine article, while genetically screening embryos for implantation, also chose to determine the sex of their unborn child. The Collins wanted a daughter, so the geneticisits at the clinic sorted Scott’s sperm by X and Y chromosomes and implanted only X chromosomal sperm. Though people of all societies have always had preferences for sons or daughters for various reasons, new technology is making it possible to actually choose what gender child you will conceive. And that kind of power is having a serious impact on the way some women are looking at pregnancy. This article, featured in the online magazine The Atlantic, discusses the rising trend in American women calling up fertility clinics and point-blank asking for a daughter. If you google the two words “want daughter”, the first three links take you to online support groups for women and couples who are tired of having sons. In a similar fashion, women who have held off having children well into their forties are now able to conceive with help from doctors, creating an entirely new type of parenting and mother-child dynamic. Men and women are entering into the business of parenthood with the notion that anything is possible, and very soon, it may be.
Its possible that genetic scientists will soon be choosing not only the health and gender of babies, but their physical, emotional, and intellectual features as well. While our ancestors may have build their culture around biological adaptations, the generations of the future may be adapting biology to suit their cultural norms.
10 Responses to ““Designer” Babies”
“While our ancestors may have build their culture around biological adaptations, the generations of the future may be adapting biology to suit their cultural norms.”
As you will see during this semester, this is exactly what Lev Vygotsky says, although he postulates that this is a feature of human nature – not something that is only in the future – and neither good nor bad.