“Designer” babies
March 20, 2011 by mschor
Nature vs. Nurture has been a topic of debate for quite some time amongst developmentalists. Is the development of humans purely mapped out, or rather, predetermined for us by our genetic coding, DNA. Or is the development of humans based on the experiences happening around them, forming and molding them into shape like clay. This is a basic understanding of the ongoing debate of nature vs. nurture.
Through this ongoing debate, another has risen to controversial levels. The concept of “designer” babies was a more recent phenomena that came about with the emergence of the PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis). This machine was originally created and intended for disease screening, but has now been repurposed as “God” to create the perfect infant.
Now what exactly is a “designer” baby? A “designer” baby is similar to that of a designer dress for fashion week except, instead of deciding what fabrics should be used, which colors, how they’ll be stitched etc… people decide which gender they would prefer, hair color, eye color, physical features etc… Now with the emergence of “designer” babies, we can go back and try to fit it into the equation of nature vs. nurture.
Nature seems to have been removed from the equation when people were able to dictate to a doctor how they would like their offspring to look and develop. But is this purely nurturing? It certainly follows the analogy of being molded like clay, but nature has it’s way of prevailing, as man-kind has witnessed throughout it’s rich history. It’s seems as if we have managed to manipulate forces that we, as a human race, don’t fully understand.
