Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

How desirable can you make your baby? Well, for “designer” babies, there can be limitless possibilities to make your baby as desirable as you want. For example, if you want your baby to have blue eyes and blonde hair, just go to a clinic that performs PGD, or pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and undergo the procedure, at a high cost, of course. As defined in a WSJ health article, PGD is a procedure in which a three-day-old embryo, consisting of about six cells, is tested in a lab to see if it carries any genetic disease. If it does, the embryo is discarded and another embryo, that is free of genetic disease, is implanted back into the mother’s womb through a procedure called IVF, or in vitro fertilization. Although this procedure has been highly criticized on the grounds of ethics and religion, the benefits of having a “disease free” baby outweigh the negatives. But, when parents choose their babies to have specific physical characteristics or gender, the procedure becomes unethical. All babies should be given equal opportunities to develop mentally and physically, and it’s unjustified for one baby to be superior to another on the basis of genetic engineering.

In the textbook, we learn that an individual’s genotype is the exact genetic makeup that the individual has inherited. Each individual’s genotype is unique, and one can be superior to another. In the discussion about the emergence of shorter pregnancies, females with genotypes that favor the development of “shorter pregnancy” phenotypes have a higher rate of survival and enable their offspring to inherit the genetic tendency for shorter pregnancies. By undergoing PGD and IVF, females can “design” their babies to contain the gene for shorter pregnancies, as well as other genes that can improve the health of the offspring.

The textbook also teaches about the genetic inheritance of an individual through sexual reproduction. It tells us that every human sperm and egg contains 23 chromosomes, and 46 chromosomes are necessary for the development of a new individual. Furthermore, the gender of an offspring is determined by the chromosome that is carried by the sperm when it fertilizes the egg. If the sperm carries an X chromosome, then a girl will be conceived. And if the sperm carries a Y chromosome, then a boy will be conceived. The issue of gender selection has been highly publicized in the past couple of decades. Most of the time, gender selection is based on parental preferences or culture. However, in some cases, the gender of an offspring can be crucial to the baby’s survival. In an article titled “Woman has ‘designer’ baby after sex selection treatment” by Caroline Gammell, a woman undergoes PGD to ensure the survival of her baby. She first gave birth to three boys naturally, but they all died due to an undiagnosed genetic heart condition that affects males. After choosing to have a girl through PGD, she gave birth to a girl who successfully lived past pregnancy without any heart condition. In this life determining situation, the choice of having a designer baby was extremely beneficial.

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439771603075099.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2275317/Woman-has-designer-baby-after-sex-selection-treatment.html