Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

In 2004 the term “designer babies” made its way out of movies and into the Oxford English Dictionary. This term explains infants that are created by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization (IVF).  With this process parents are able to ensure the absence of certain genes or characteristics from their newborn. The process of making designer babies originated to ensure parents that their baby would not be born with a genetic disorder. As of today, it is only legal to carry out this process for two reasons. These reasons include ensuring the sex and genes of the baby as well as screening the embryos for genetic disorders.

To determine the sex and genes of the baby a scientist will have to take the sperm of the father and separate it into both male and female chromosomes. The 23^rd pair of chromosomes determines a person’s genetic sex. The male has two sex chromosomes one X and one Y. The female has two X chromosomes. After separating the chromosomes, the scientist will artificially inseminate the mother with the correct sperm so that the preferred sex will be the sex of the child. The scientist can also alter the baby’s genes according to the liking of the parents. Both parents carry genes that the baby may inherit. These genes influence specific traits that can have multiple forms. For example the baby may or may not have a cleft chin. This form of genes is called allele. Two types of allele include dominant allele which is when the allele whose associated characteristics are expressed, and recessive allele. Recessive allele is when the allele whose associated characteristics are not expressed. The parents need to decide which gene they would like their child to possess in order to know which allele they do not want.

An embryo may obtain a disorder during the process of chromosome replication during meiosis or mitosis. An estimated 3.5 percent of all babies are born with some sort of genetic abnormality. In order to prevent a baby from having a genetic disorder the parents have a scientist carefully study the embryo during and eight cell stage. During either point one or two the cells are removed to test for any signs of the disorder. Only the embryos that lack the variants will make their way to the mother’s womb. Some common genetic disorders that can be prevented include recessive disorders such as Sickle-cell anemia, X-linked recessive disorders such as Hemophilia, Dominant disorders such as Neurofibromatosis or a Chromosomal disorder such as Down syndrome.

As far as being pro or con designer babies, I based my opinion on the idea of being able to save the life of a child. If you know that a baby has a high risk of being born with a disorder and can prevent it, why not? If you have the money to save your child from living a life in which he or she will greatly suffer than it should be done. I agree with the notion of designer babies as long as it is not taken to the extent of genetically engineering the embryo for the baby’s appearance. If parents being to do so, society will worsen in discriminating against people that appear different. The concept of designer babies has the ability to save the future of ill children, as long as it is used for that ability.