Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

The concept of designer babies has been a continuous debate in both social and religious terms. There are those who believe that the concept of designing babies and scientists having the ability to “play God” in a sense is wrong. Usually those disturbed are the people who have no problems with infertility, or in some cases those who choose not to have children at all. However, for those who maybe experiencing problems with conceiving or for those who have a higher rate of producing children with mental retardation or genetic disorders may beg to differ.  The concept of Designer babies can be viewed from a variety of viewpoints but in general Designer babies in my understanding is a process created like in-vitro fertilization, egg freezing, or surrogacy created to aid those unable to reproduce normally. Also those who have a higher chance of having a defective offspring  they now have the opportunity to increase their chances of producing a healthy baby.

After reading chapter 2 and digesting the numerous possibilities of having an irregular child, in my opinion Designer babies sounds like a pretty good alternative. For example, with the amounts of mutations that can occur during mitosis and meiosis pre-screening to check the embryo may help parents, especially those who, together are carriers for certain diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia, or in general for offspring who are under/over developed genetically. I have a cousin who has Downs Syndrome and though he functions nomally to the best of his ability, I know that if he had a choice he would not have chosen to be born with Downs Syndrome. I think that Designer babies should be an alternative for couples who know that their risk of producing a sick child is high but it should not be used for couples who want to create a perfect offspring with all the traits that society would find “attractive.” I think in this sense discretion must be used by both the parents and the doctors or scientists, this procedure should be available to those in need not those who want to cheat the natural process of reproduction and baby development.

 Even though there are those who support Designer babies for phenotypical advancements these procedures cannot erase the affect of nature and biology on the offspring. I think it would be possible to say that even though they may screen for certain defects and diseases before hand there is still a risk that the child may develop another sickness or condition that was unsuspected. In an article titled “Debating Designer Babies” from the Pro-Choice Forum by Ellie Lee, June 2003, it stated “Designer Babies debates are focused on society’s concern with children’s vulnerability and the problem of “parental power.”  Clearly, I do not think the problem is screening for defects in offspring because no one hopes for an unhealthy child, but the question now becomes are parents using this process to their advantage to make perfect children. The ambiguity of the motivations of some parents is what causes this huge debate over ethics in my understanding, but the process itself  is a positive advancement in science and for infertility.