Designer Babies Upon the completion of mapping the human genome in 2003, a whole new side of genetic understanding had opened up; better understanding of genetic diseases, how genes affect personality, and with that, the genetic altering of babies. This new concept of “designer babies” has caused great controversy and many of its harmful effects have gone unrecognized. This form of genetic altering research should not be continued because designer babies create more adverse effects on society than it benefits. They negatively impact our society by causing social segregation, increasing mortality, and by creating detrimental physical and psychological effects on the baby.
To begin, one of the main reasons why designer babies negatively …show more content…
Because of the relatively recent introduction of this idea in the medical field, not much research has been done about it. These days, geneticists do not know the extent of changing a baby’s genes; changing one gene to be superior may affect another gene. Making your baby smarter may take away their ability to socially interact, or even worse, may impede a function necessary for survival, such as the immune system! For example, a designer baby born to be smarter could live their whole life in the hospital due to their inability to fight disease! In addition, we do not know if genes also have multiple functions. In a study conducted by Princeton University involving mice, it showed that while scientists were able to genetically modify mice to be able to retain information for longer, these mice were more sensitive to pain, a sign that the intelligence genes may be linked to sensitivity. All this goes to show that scientists barely understand genes, and may never truly understand this complex concept, and therefore should not be practicing it yet, or even ever, in order to prevent more unnecessary killing of embryos, or failures. Another reason why designer babies have no history of success is because of the lack of research, they have an extremely high failure rate. 15-24% of IVF pregnancies resulted in miscarriages and only 21.1 IVF births were successful …show more content…
First of all, any mistakes that are made during the gene-altering process are permanently imprinted on the child. If they are born with a birth defect, for example a lung malformation, they would have to live with the physical effects of having great difficulty breathing. As well, the child would have to constantly be going to the hospital for check-ups, and this will make them feel isolated from society, having to spend so much time away from school and home. If they had a different birth defect, like a craniofacial birth defect that affects the way their face looks, it may cause them to be bullied at school for how they look, affecting their self-confidence. Furthermore, many people think that if a child was genetically altered to be ‘better’, then they would be prouder or happier, but this is not necessarily true. If a baby was genetically altered to be smarter but they turn out to be average, the parents might criticize or reject them. This can have great effects on a child psychologically, as they will feel like they had not met their parent’s standards. This as well can lower the child’s self esteem. Another harmful effect is on designer saviour siblings is they may feel like their sole purpose is to save their sibling, and that they were not born because their parents wanted
To begin, one of the main reasons why designer babies negatively …show more content…
Because of the relatively recent introduction of this idea in the medical field, not much research has been done about it. These days, geneticists do not know the extent of changing a baby’s genes; changing one gene to be superior may affect another gene. Making your baby smarter may take away their ability to socially interact, or even worse, may impede a function necessary for survival, such as the immune system! For example, a designer baby born to be smarter could live their whole life in the hospital due to their inability to fight disease! In addition, we do not know if genes also have multiple functions. In a study conducted by Princeton University involving mice, it showed that while scientists were able to genetically modify mice to be able to retain information for longer, these mice were more sensitive to pain, a sign that the intelligence genes may be linked to sensitivity. All this goes to show that scientists barely understand genes, and may never truly understand this complex concept, and therefore should not be practicing it yet, or even ever, in order to prevent more unnecessary killing of embryos, or failures. Another reason why designer babies have no history of success is because of the lack of research, they have an extremely high failure rate. 15-24% of IVF pregnancies resulted in miscarriages and only 21.1 IVF births were successful …show more content…
First of all, any mistakes that are made during the gene-altering process are permanently imprinted on the child. If they are born with a birth defect, for example a lung malformation, they would have to live with the physical effects of having great difficulty breathing. As well, the child would have to constantly be going to the hospital for check-ups, and this will make them feel isolated from society, having to spend so much time away from school and home. If they had a different birth defect, like a craniofacial birth defect that affects the way their face looks, it may cause them to be bullied at school for how they look, affecting their self-confidence. Furthermore, many people think that if a child was genetically altered to be ‘better’, then they would be prouder or happier, but this is not necessarily true. If a baby was genetically altered to be smarter but they turn out to be average, the parents might criticize or reject them. This can have great effects on a child psychologically, as they will feel like they had not met their parent’s standards. This as well can lower the child’s self esteem. Another harmful effect is on designer saviour siblings is they may feel like their sole purpose is to save their sibling, and that they were not born because their parents wanted