Designer Babies Research Paper

Designer babies are believed to be the future of modern biotechnology and medicine. The world has seen a few successful cases, but the welfare of these children is still governed by the country’s regulatory authorities. While this novel invention provides several advantages to parents for selecting specific traits, it has also received wide criticism for the same purpose.
One of the reasons for the development of PGD was to prevent genetic and inherited diseases. Genetic screening can significantly reduce the chances of a baby being born with various genetic diseases such as Down syndrome, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Cystic fibrosis, rare blood disorders such as Diamond- Blackfan Anemia etc. Scientific intervention can virtually eradicate inherited medical conditions like obesity, diabetes and hypertension in a few generations. In order to do this, disease bearing genes are discarded and the healthy ones are implanted into the uterus. However, ethicists and religious groups are against the practice of …show more content…
While some parents may choose to eliminate traits for certain diseases, some may choose to introduce certain genes for their own benefit. For instance, a deaf lesbian couple in the United States had created a deaf baby so it could fit in with their society. They used the sperm of a donor with five generations of deafness in his family. This can be seen as a harsh act by some however, this has been justified by certain communities. In this case the couple argued that deafness cannot be seen as a disability and as parents, they have the right to procreate with whoever they want to. They saw deafness as a cultural identity and communicating with the offspring otherwise would be impractical. However, it has been contended that in this case, children can learn to use sign language and taking away the function of a sense organ just for this purpose is