“The overall view of the human genome project has been one of great excitement and positive press, but there are people who have concerns that are quite reasonable, and they are frightened of the things they don 't understand” - Thomas R. Cech. Cech’s quote refers to the new discoveries in biotechnology. Many have heard the phrase before; does ‘designer babies’ ring a bell? It might, since it has been a very controversial topic in the science world. Many scientists believe altering the genes in human embryos to eliminate diseases is beneficial to society. However, other scientists and civilians believe ‘playing God’ is morally wrong and terrifying, since the world does not know the repercussions. Although designer babies have their worrisome
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Well, according to Rahul Thadani, a writer for Buzzle.com and the Oxford dictionary it is, “a designed baby as 'A baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics, ' “ (Thadani 2). In other words, a designer baby as an embryo, had genetic modification to its appearance and, or the babies tolerance to diseases. Now, the press gave this research a name, ‘designer babies’, but scientists like to call it the Human Genome project (Stock 1). In recent years, scientists have developed a method to edit the genes in embryos called CRISPER (Palus 20). Unfortunately, scientists have not perfected the method yet to use on real people, so no one will be injured or sued. Once they perfect this technique, CRISPER will help society and create a jump towards to new medical advancements (Palus 20). For the opposing side of the debate, many people argue that the method will never be safe because of the outcomes of the experiments. The editing worked for only four out of the 86 embryos which inturned created many mutations (Palus 20). Of course the word mutation scares many people, but this new method needs to be worked on before it becomes introduced into the public. In the debate about designer babies some scientists are for it while others are against
Well, according to Rahul Thadani, a writer for Buzzle.com and the Oxford dictionary it is, “a designed baby as 'A baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics, ' “ (Thadani 2). In other words, a designer baby as an embryo, had genetic modification to its appearance and, or the babies tolerance to diseases. Now, the press gave this research a name, ‘designer babies’, but scientists like to call it the Human Genome project (Stock 1). In recent years, scientists have developed a method to edit the genes in embryos called CRISPER (Palus 20). Unfortunately, scientists have not perfected the method yet to use on real people, so no one will be injured or sued. Once they perfect this technique, CRISPER will help society and create a jump towards to new medical advancements (Palus 20). For the opposing side of the debate, many people argue that the method will never be safe because of the outcomes of the experiments. The editing worked for only four out of the 86 embryos which inturned created many mutations (Palus 20). Of course the word mutation scares many people, but this new method needs to be worked on before it becomes introduced into the public. In the debate about designer babies some scientists are for it while others are against