The majority of individuals are familiar with the mundane task of choosing the ingredients on a Subway sandwich, numerous people have experienced the complex decision of electing the specifications for a computer, few have even encountered the remarkable undertaking of selecting a sperm donor, but what about ordering, through a catalog, the specific genes, abilities, and cosmetic characteristics for a child-to-be? Although the technology for human genetic engineering and cloning has yet to be fully developed, the idea of “designer children” (Sandel 2007, 7) can no longer be thought of as a science fiction, rather society must recognize it wholly as a science and more importantly as a reality (McKibben 2003, 67). Being at the cusp of these
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As a consequence of the pre-selection by the parents of certain genes, children would no longer have the ability to “choose their life plan for themselves” (Sandel 2007, 7). Rather than having the ability to self-brand an identity and future (Marwick 2013), children would be born already branded. It can be argued that through practices, such as hyper-parenting, parents have always made decisions that have determined the lives of their children (Sandel 2007), however the choices made using genetic engineering are disconnected from those of previous generations. The choices and implications of genetic engineering would exist in the children’s genetic make-up and thus would be immensely “deep” (McKibben 2003, 192). As a result, children would be deprived of even their choice to resist their parent’s desires (McKibben 2003) because they would be physically composed of their parent’s wishes. Thus, instead of increasing the amount of choice that individuals can enjoy, the genetic engineering of humans and the associated technologies would drastically diminish individual choice within …show more content…
Similarly to the neo-liberal drivers that define a rigid template for self presentation on current social media platforms (Marwick 2013), there would likely be “dictates of the market” that would outline which traits and characteristics would be viewed as desirable (Sandel 2007, 75). For example, if the market determines that being a five-foot and eleven-inch tall, athletic women with brown hair and brown eyes is the most desirable phenotype, than there would likely be an spike in the number of children born matching that description and a sudden drop in births of blonde-hair, blue eyed boys. Further, it is plausible, if not likely, that these same economic pressures would shape the interests and skills that individuals are engineered to have, such that if a certain field is highly profitable, a cohort of children will be generated with the skills they need to succeed within that domain. These illustrations demonstrate that the ability to genetically engineer humans with certain traits grants would introduce market influences into an aspect of human life that is currently fully and randomly determined by nature. Thus, as a consequence of the incorporation of genetic engineering of humans and similar technologies into society, there would
As a consequence of the pre-selection by the parents of certain genes, children would no longer have the ability to “choose their life plan for themselves” (Sandel 2007, 7). Rather than having the ability to self-brand an identity and future (Marwick 2013), children would be born already branded. It can be argued that through practices, such as hyper-parenting, parents have always made decisions that have determined the lives of their children (Sandel 2007), however the choices made using genetic engineering are disconnected from those of previous generations. The choices and implications of genetic engineering would exist in the children’s genetic make-up and thus would be immensely “deep” (McKibben 2003, 192). As a result, children would be deprived of even their choice to resist their parent’s desires (McKibben 2003) because they would be physically composed of their parent’s wishes. Thus, instead of increasing the amount of choice that individuals can enjoy, the genetic engineering of humans and the associated technologies would drastically diminish individual choice within …show more content…
Similarly to the neo-liberal drivers that define a rigid template for self presentation on current social media platforms (Marwick 2013), there would likely be “dictates of the market” that would outline which traits and characteristics would be viewed as desirable (Sandel 2007, 75). For example, if the market determines that being a five-foot and eleven-inch tall, athletic women with brown hair and brown eyes is the most desirable phenotype, than there would likely be an spike in the number of children born matching that description and a sudden drop in births of blonde-hair, blue eyed boys. Further, it is plausible, if not likely, that these same economic pressures would shape the interests and skills that individuals are engineered to have, such that if a certain field is highly profitable, a cohort of children will be generated with the skills they need to succeed within that domain. These illustrations demonstrate that the ability to genetically engineer humans with certain traits grants would introduce market influences into an aspect of human life that is currently fully and randomly determined by nature. Thus, as a consequence of the incorporation of genetic engineering of humans and similar technologies into society, there would