“Designer babies” is a term defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics. In our modern society, such technological advances have become a reality as more and more options are becoming available to parents who wish to rule out the possibility of passing on dangerous genetic traits. This may seem like a noble thing to do, but several concerns regarding ethics have been brought to my attention.
As expected, this procedure does not come cheap, costing as much as four thousand dollars for a screening and about thirty thousand dollars overall for the complete treatment. Since procedures such as these are not covered by Medicare programs, they are restricted to those who can afford to pay them from out of their pockets or in other words, upper class families. In essence, procedures like these are widening the already increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Unless this procedure is made available to the general populous, the rich will be able to choose to survive while the poor will have to face genetic defects and death.
Any form of human genetic manipulation paves a dangerous path towards segregation. If we let procedures like these go to far, we humans may begin removing dangerous genes as well as undesirable genes. This will split our society into two different halves, genetically modified and non-genetically modified. Genetically modified people will excel in everything they do, since they will be designed that way, while anyone who isn’t genetically modified will have to compete against people who are naturally better. This will no doubt create huge problems within our country such as riots and protesting against the inequality that these procedures create. I for one do not want to bring that upon our country.
We also have to take into account the religious conflict this will cause. Atleast most, if not al will definitely be against scientists playing God and deciding who lives, who dies, and what kind of person someone will turn out to be. This will create further conflict within our country as well as around the world.
Sources:
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101108/bc_ctv_investigates_making_babies_5_101108/20101116?hub=BritishColumbia
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://www.prochoiceforum.org.uk/ocrreliss7.php
Picture: http://tinyurl.com/2egddpw
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ixEDLa3Jlc
Commented On: http://tinyurl.com/232z2h7 and http://tinyurl.com/2c6aejk
After reading through your blog, I can see that you completely disagree with the process of genetic manipulation. I definitely agree with the arguments you have provided in your blog. I do know that this new medical advancement is extremely controversial and can possibly be the root to chaos to our society. As you mentioned, due to its high cost, only rich people will have access to these advancements, leaving the poor to face genetic defects. Thus, it would cause a dividing line between the rich and the poor. We would then be entering a world of inequality and discrimination between those who are genetically modified and those who are not. I also agree that the use of these go against religious morals and can be considered unethical. However, this medical advancement also brings an extremely significant benefit to our society; its ability to detect genetic diseases and discard them. Since it does bring such a positive impact to our society, I believe that the process should not be made illegal. Instead, laws shall be enacted to enforce the use of these techniques only for medical reasons, not for cosmetic ones. It is completely unethical and ridiculous to offer these techniques to individuals only for the parents’ desire to create a baby in which they would consider “perfect”. To conclude, I certainly enjoyed reading your blog and the video was interesting.
ReplyDeleteHey Dylan! Nice work on your BioBlog :D
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that genetic maipulation will lead to segregation and chaos in our society, which I also do not want. I'd like to add that it would also affect the family. Who would like to hear that they were genetically modified? I know that I would be having an identity crisis and would be so confused. It may cause them to have some conflist with their parents and family members. They should love their babies no matter how they turn out to be. I understand that they don't want their child to have some kind of disease (or look bad :P), but even if they do,in my opinion, makes the family stronger because they go through hardships together, which grows a stronger bond.
I would also like to add that even if these procedures can be available to everyone, it would still conflict with our religion, which is still very important to many people. I even find it wrong to act like God.
Anyways, Your' Bioblog was well done. I loved the youtube video and the pictures that you had!
I chose to write about a different topic so I never did any research. The way he introduced it allowed for people that did not know the topic initially, me, to understand the topic. I had never thought of the negative effects. The future consequences he imposed was very interesting as it would destroy it and cause constant chaos between modified and non-modified.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would like to add is the unpredicted adverse effects of modifying the genes. You did not mention the consequence that change a single gene can have on the entire organism. If one changes one height, it might cause additional unwanted disorders and other defects. Then you would have to modify the genes even more to compensate for these and they might cause more problems so it would be a continuous chain of problems.
Overall, your opinion was well formulated and had a nice structure of introducing the topic and stating your opinion.