Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

Imagine creating your perfect baby, kind of like children create their perfect teddy bears in Build-A-Bear. Imagine picking its gender, eye color, hair color, height, weight, intelligence level etc. This baby would be created just for you! This might sound impossible, but in fact it isn’t. Up until about ten years ago, it was just a mere thought most people had in mind. Well today, it is actually possible to do most of these things. The sex of our babies is determined by the father’s sperm. If he gives an X chromosome, then the child is female; if he gives a Y chromosome, then the child is male. Our genetics influence the traits and the genetic disorders that are passed down to our children. If designer babies were only made to avoid a deadly genetic disorder, than it would be more or less acceptable. However, choosing the gender of your baby just because you want a girl instead of a boy should not be happening. Creating little robots goes against human nature and survival of our species. If people got to choose everything they want in their child, I am positive that some of the things we need for survival would disappear. Although I don’t agree with this concept, it seems that it will be happening in the near future.

This process also costs a lot of money. Not everybody can afford it, which I believe is a good thing. Doing this to get rid of diseases is one thing, but still people are wondering if it is ethical. However, what if a couple created this “perfect” baby, but something went wrong and the baby isn’t as beautiful or as smart as they expected. Will this affect how they will take care of the baby and how they will act towards it? This idea is raising a lot of questions and I believe it is unethical. Humans survived for thousands of years without technology interfering or “helping” and I definitely think that we can keep going without it. Why would somebody want to artificially inseminate themselves with the use of IV if they are capable of getting pregnant on their own? Does sex not seem pleasing to people anymore? Once again, why bring in technology when you can have sex and not only be pleased but also created something and give life to something without needles and everything else needed for IV?