Jennifer Farinas November 14, 2012 Professor Golden ENC 1101 Designer Babies: Are they Ethical?

If you had to pick between choosing to customize a pet that you want to buy and getting one with all of its faults, which would you choose? Many would want to be able to pick exactly what they desired in a pet but thats not the way that theyre made; theyre not perfect, theyre just pets. Its the same way when it comes to question whether or not its right to be able to customize a human being before theyre born. Designer babies is the term used for unborn children that have been customized by their parents. This concept has been around for almost more than 10 years. This procedure first came to light when Dr. Cohen and other colleagues published an article on 17 bioengineered eggs that were inserted with mitochondrial DNA which would then be passed on by the mother and thus created the first bioengineered babies. (Human Reproduction)There are many ethical and medical implications with doing this that makes us question whether the research of this procedure should be continued. Even now there is a self-imposed ban by the American Association for the Advancement of Science that says that there is a line that shouldnt be crossed when it comes to altering human DNA. (Good, Better, Best) The biggest reasons as to why it should be stopped are because it isnt ethical, it will cause a rift in the social divide, and it can cause medical complications in the future. Being able to choose and alter the DNA of an unborn child is unethical. Humans shouldnt have the power to alter the way that we are made naturally. Although some argue that it is fine to be able to choose the sex or to be able to find some underlying medical condition, there is a line that shouldnt be crossed when it comes to choosing features on a baby. We should be able to appreciate the gifts and abilities we are born with. Even then, some parents decide to have their child take lessons and classes to be better than what they already are. Appreciating children as gifts makes us have a bit more humility and not be so egotistical as to want your child to be unnaturally better than everyone else. Parents should be able to accept their child the way that they are. This teaches them what theologian William May calls an openness to the unbidden. Some people say that this should be done for medical reasons because even this will intervene with nature. But to what point is a good health argument plausible? Society however warps the way that we bring children into this world. Before, when a child with Down syndrome was born, it was by pure chance. Now, when a child is born with this same syndrome, society views it as something bad, because we had the choice not to have the child since we knew it would be born this way. It doesnt teach us the humility that every parent should have with their child. For parents, they shouldnt want to choose how their baby comes out, they should be happy with the way that theyre born naturally. Having this power is unethical by nature not medicine. Not only is this procedure unethical because parents shouldnt want to change the way that they conceived and made their baby, but also because this will cause a rift in the

social divide that we have. George Annas, a professor of health law at Boston Universitys School of Public Health says, Would making someone smarter inevitably make them happy? Is it worth going through the trouble of wasting money and doing this procedure to emotionally and intellectually benefit the child? Other people such as Gregory E. Pence, a professor of bioethics at the University of Alabama say that its the same thing as when new technology comes out, They issue dire warnings every time something new comes along that could possibly make life better, Besides, the fact that people already find ways to segregate their children based on social standing such as sending them to private schools and private lessons, why should we create a greater divide than there already is? Apart from the economic divisions that we have, we would now be adding a biological rift to this mix. Many authors create scenarios where there are the ruling alphas and the mindless gammas that perform menial tasks. They think that these kinds of scenarios arent so farfetched. If this goes through, then people are going to either conform to this new social norm or drop out. This will create class resentments because those that are genetically altered will view themselves are superior to those that cant afford the procedure. However, some say that this will pass because just like new technology that is expensive at first but cheap after a while, this procedure will soon be available to people of all social standings. (Staying Human) But even then, there will be some people that for either ethical or religious reasons wont go ahead with the procedure. It doesnt matter how many go through with it, there will always be a set of people that wont and that divide will always be there. Sometimes one has to think of not only the ethical implications that this has on society but of the medical complications that it has on the child itself. Granted, this procedure can be used to figure out whether or not a child will have some medical complication in the future. However, there is a line to be crossed when using this procedure causes medical complications for the child when its born. This procedure of inserting some genes into the embryo may cause the disruption of some other genes that are crucial for survival. When the test was done on several mice, they saw that although some learned faster than others, they also experienced a higher sensitivity for pain. Some people say though, that this technology is being used to look for certain genes that carry diseases so that they wont pass into the embryo. Although this procedure carries less risks, doing this may have certain implications on the well-being of the child. Would you want to risk your childs well-being just so that they can look, act, or think a certain way? Of course not, because everyone wants their child to be born healthy to lead a healthy life. People today always search for the way to make us better, faster, stronger, and have a longer life. But by trying to enhance genetically our childrens lives dont make them live any longer or be any healthier. The risks always outweigh the benefits of doing this procedure in the future. Many critics say that