“Designer” babies
March 9, 2011 by Priscilla Santana
Today, society has become so up-to-date with technology that even designing your own baby has become a norm. What happened to being able to be surprised at 5 months pregnant about the gender of baby one is having? Technology advances occurred. Today we see more and more families undergoing a process in which couples can “design” their own child, meaning, they can choose the sex of their child.
Chapter 2 talks about the different genes, sicknesses, etc which children adopt from heredity. What if ones family has a trait of freckles, does this mean if parents decide to “design” this new upcoming baby, he/she will not come out with freckles because its not a natural baby, which later on when the child is older, he/she will realize there is something different.
In my opinion if we can now “design” our own babies by choosing the sex, what does our future hold for us? can technology advance so far in to being able to pre-determine what the child’s hobbies will be, talents, color of hair, eyes. Such a small modification such a sex of a baby can later on result in science and technology further enhancing experiments, you may think, it can be a good thing because the child will be born harm-free with no defects. But how beneficial is a harm-free child who is already so “perfect?” In my personal opinion, not at all.
Now this brings up my next topic, Nature vs. Nurture; Children should be born with a blank slate, also known as Tabula rasa and with life experiences they should grow up and learn from mistakes, etc. if a child is born perfect then he has nothing to work on, he has no talents to discover, he has no fear to over-come.
Yes, “Designer” babies chooses the sex of the babies, but if doctors are able to do that now, then my future predictions are that doctors are already trying to come up with ways to create this perfect baby.
Genes should not be controlled by technology, genes should be passed down by both mother and father therefore sex of the child should be determined by parents genes not science picking out what sex parents “prefer.”
http://www.humansfuture.org/genetic_engineering_designer_babies.php.htm
The above link goes into deep details pertaining “designer” babies.
It is unfair for parents to pin point every exact feature they want their children to have, it takes away from the beauty of a natural birth; Therefore, I am against “designer” babies. But others may disagree and see it as a beneficial thing to society. Everyone will have a different opinion regarding this controversial issue depending on their culture, religion, morals, and traditions.
