Running Head: designer babies

Community Problem Report: Designer Babies

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301
November 9, 2017
Miguel Cortez
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Abstract
Designing a baby is a genetic process that takes place before the fecundation of the

ovary which at the end will result in a newborn. This process of modifying a human being

has the good and the bad consequences, the good benefits are a stronger and healthier baby,

however, the bad benefits are the ethical reasons, and the cost of this process. This idea of

modifying a human being it seems to be a really good benefit to certain people, however,

there are other people that think changing the genetic material of a baby is a horrendous

thing. This goes more than just be horrendous to some people, they also think that this is

unethical. However, are they doing this in order to help the human race and make them

stronger so they can have better and more efficiently lives or they are making this genetic

modification to make only some of the humans Invincible.

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Introduction
There is nothing wrong with change if it is in for the right direction by Winston

Churchill. The designing a person is something that backs in the days we thought it was

impossible to even to the most intelligent scientists, however, technology has become one

of our primary tools at the time of making any task. Technology has had an impact in our

life that nowadays is almost impossible to live without it, and this is the case for science

because thanks to technology the scientist have made a lot of discoveries that had changed

the way of how we see the world.

Now the new perspective that is being released to the world is that exists the

possibility to design a human being, the scientist will be able to change any physical

appearance such as the skin color, eye color, type and color of hair, as well as the height

and all thanks to the genetic modification. This is an idea that we all have to consider

because it has good benefits to those families whose baby will have physical issues,

because now they will change the fact that their baby will have any disability as mentioned

in the video from TED by Paul Knoepfler. Although this has a really good benefit the cost

for this type of genetic modification would be really expensive and only those who are able

to pay the money are the ones that will get the genetic modifications. Within this paper it

will be discuss how the scientists are doing the genetic modification, what would be the
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cost of this procedure, what the people and the world think of this

topic, and the cases that have been successful at doing this genetic

changes.

This is a process that has been making a lot of

controversies because there are two ways to get this process, in all

the processes the gametes which are the sperm and the ovary from

the parents are needed as is mentioned in the new from The New

York Times Genetically Modified Babies by Marcy Darnovsky.

The first method is by introducing multiple sperms to multiple

ovaries which will result with multiple fetuses, that depending on

the specifications the parents wanted the scientist will run this process till the standards are

meet and until this point is reached the other fetus will be destroyed. The second process is

by taking the sperm analyzing the DNA then change it to a determined the specific result

will be reached. There is support to the idea of changing genetically a human being because

it will end with all type of disabilities, but the science, in this case does not seems really

helpful to society because they are only looking this process as a business because only

those who can pay will receive this scientifically benefit.

It is interesting that nowadays we can decide what physical changes we want to our

son. Besides society consider that science is not doing this for the scientific reasons and

only for the money, the people also consider this as an unethical process because they think

that life starts from the conception of the baby not when the baby is born. Although some

people think this is unethical, however, if this is done to help the people not to only enrich

the ego of the rich people then there is nothing wrong with it because the science will only
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end with ant type of human disabilities. Furthermore changing genetically a portion of

humans will change the whole population within years because the genetic modify people

will have babies with the not modify, but their babies will be modified changing a big

portion of the world.

When the modifications started.

This process was able since the year of 2015 and 2016 as the document The

Designer Baby era is not upon us by Ed Yong mentioned. These were the first two years a

successful genetic modification was made. The years of 2015 and 2016 made a big change

in science because the scientist demonstrated that changing genetically a human being was

possible, this success in science occurred in China and then spread around the world. If

changing the genetic material is a process that scientist consider the perfection of humans

why this is making such negative impact on the society. Society understands that this can

be a really big step to the human evolution, however, what could happen if this evolution

gets at the point where the science cannot control it because not everyone will get this

upgrade to their babies. This can be considered one of the biggest flaws that science can

not handle because the people consider they are making a new species because the new

humans would be smarter, healthier, stronger and with almost any weakness that could get

them way ahead than the regular humans.

The document The Designer Baby era is not upon us by Ed Yong mentioned that

this whole idea of changing the genes and creating a baby with specific trades started in an

elevator with the conversation between Shoukhrat Mitalipov a cell biologist and his

colleague Snajiv Kaul. In the conversation between this two scientists, Mitalipov convey

that he wanted to use CRISPS which is a technique that is used to edit the genes, in order to
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cure a disease-causing gene in human embryos as is mention in the The Designer Baby

era is not upon us by Ed Yong document. Mitalipov was the correct person to do this

genetic modification because within his work it is available to find that he had cloned

monkeys and also the first on creating humans embryos by cloning adult cells which give a

lot of experience within the field of genetic modifications.

Helping the world.

There are many genetic diseases that are affecting the humans one of those genetic

diseases is the mitochondrial disease which prevents the mitochondria from converting

food into energy this disease is mostly inherited from the mother to the embryo. The studies

from the document Genetically Modified Babies by

Marcy Darnovsky estimate that 1000 to 4000 children

born in the United States each year will develop this

diseases. The scientists are working on replacing the

gene that causes this disease to a healthier one that will

stop with this disease that may affect a lot of people if is

not treated. However, this will not be the only disease that will be cured, because with this

process any type of disease will be cured. Another thing that motivated science to do this

genetic modification was that with this changes the new generation of modified babies will

be more intelligent, athletic, healthier, stronger and musically talented.

They modified babies will have more chances to develop a task more successfully

than a normal baby. They can be a scientist, Nobel laureates, doctors, engineers anything

they want as is mentioned in the new We need designer babies who can win the Noble

and change the world by Scroll staff. The difference is that the modified babies will find
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the cure of a disease in a shorter time than a regular human, construct the most advanced

submarine that reaches a deeper profundity and even airplanes that travel long distances

within seconds; this modification on babies will change the whole world not only the life of

the one that is modified.

Supporting science or not?

It is right that now we know that science is always working on developing cures for

every illness that affects the human body, but what happens when the original purpose

change the direction. Most of the times everyone trusts in what the scientist say, but in this

case, this is not right because the people do not trust in this method to cure diseases. In the

document Genetically Modified Babies by Marcy Darnovsky it is mentioned by

researchers at Oregon Health and Science University We wont know for years how

subsequent generations may be affected this can be one of the worries that people might

have about this topic because it is true the science wont tell exactly how this modification

will affect the next generation.

This modification in the gene will have its restrictions because not everyone will

accept and afford to get this changes on their babies. This can be because not everyone

considers this process is ethical a study presented in the document STAT-Harvard pool:

Americans say not to designer babies by Sharon Begley showed that 65 percent of

Americans think that doing this modification should be illegal and only 26 percent said this

should be legal. The professor Robert Blendon said that they are not against scientist

trying to improve genome-editing technologies, an event such as scientist eliminating a

terrible disease... could change peoples views in the years ahead. Another fact that will

alter the decision of changing a baby will depend on if they can pay the price this genetic
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modification involves, based on the document Designer Babies are only for the rich by

Jean Twenge the cost will be around 10,000 to 20,000 dollars that no everyone will be able

to afford.

The fact that most people oppose to this is because they are afraid because as the

retired cognitive psychologist said I dont think we know enough right now to alter genes

in unborn babies and also as the document by CNN Designer Babies: Creating the perfect

child by Mike Steere conveys This could potentially irreversibly alter the human species

and this is alluding that there exist the possibility if the changes are made a powerful

species will come out that will rule over the regular humans. This scenario led to a point

that everyone is afraid of, because the amount of money that has to be paid in order to get

this update is really expansive and not everyone will be able to pay only the wealthy

people will get the modification but the thing is that they only care for their own interest.

Highlighting the concern that what if the genetic modification is not used to the right

purpose because not everyone in the world will think about finding cures, they will try to

find a way to use this superhuman to control others, and that is what scare the people.

Conclusion.

There is a video made by TED where the biologist Paul Knoepfler describe all the

benefits this modification will bring to the society such as the new baby will be smarter,

stronger, healthier almost immune to any type of disease, and more musically talented; also

mention that the cure for many diseases will be obtained by doing this process. Within the

video Paul provide to the audience an example about two girls one modified that is

accepted into a really good school and a normal girl that was not modified that was a pretty

average student that ask their parent why she cant go to the same school as her friend, and
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here is where the scenario turns because all he mentioned was all the benefits from this

gene change will bring but he never mentioned what happened to the normal girl.

Conveying to everyone that the new babies will start ruling the life of the not modified

because the modified baby is way ahead of a normal baby causing controversy among

society. Although this has really good benefits to the babies that have a genetic disease, not

everyone will afford the cost to modify their babies making this changes only to the rich

people, making the rich people whom already have power even more powerful meaning

that they will take the control over the world if this is put in the wrong hands. A clear

example of this is the famous Book of Frankenstein wrote by Mary Shelley where it

showed how the Dr. Frankenstein created a stronger human but at the end Frankenstein

couldnt control the Monster and the situation ran out of Frankenstein hands because he

did it by the ambitious of proving to everyone that he was right. This example is exactly

what can happen if the original purpose that in this case is to save lives changes to feed the

ego of the rich people.

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Reference
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Bliss, J. (2012). Designer babies. London: Raintree.

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babies.html?_r=0.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851. (1998). Frankenstein, or, The modern

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nobel-and-change-the-world-says-top-health-official.

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