November 15, 2010

Designer Babies

Have you ever wished you had a different eye colour, hair colour, or skin tone? You’ve probably already accepted that no one gets to choose what they look like. But what if we did?


As technology has progressed in recent years, a new term has surfaced: “designer baby”. This is defined as: “a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics”. This selection involves a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which entails the creation of embryos by in-vitro fertilization. They’re then grown to the eight-cell stage, where one or two cells are removed; then scientists can look at the DNA for them for defects. Only “normal” embryos are put in the womb. This process makes it possible for certain traits to be determined by parents, at a price (it’s quite the costly procedure!). A clinic in LA even started offering eye and hair colour selection in 2009, but quickly retracted this due to a strong negative reaction from the public.

Of course, the popularization of this process has the potential to drastically change society as we know it. It would impact ethical and moral ideas about the conception of babies, children who have predetermined characteristics, and parents responsible for selecting these traits. It could become a common procedure done by almost anyone (even those who disagreed at first, due to pressure from others). Wouldn’t it be odd to have baby books with spaces for lists of traits chosen for you and the name of the scientist who engineered you? This may seem far-fetched now, but it’s realistic to say that in the next few decades, this could become true to life.


My Opinion:
I believe that when people decide to have a child, they should willingly accept all of its traits, good or bad. I think people who wish to select the certain physical and personality traits of their children shouldn’t be having children at all. Doing so is like telling the world you’re only going to love your child if they measure up to your meticulous standards. It’s disappointing to see that humans may have become this shallow.

I think designer babies would suffer emotionally. I think they’d question their parents' love for them and feel increased pressure to live up to standards made for them before they were conceived. Even if their genetic makeup was chosen in order to benefit someone else, there could still be emotional distress involved. For example, the novel My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult expressed feelings of a (fictional) designer baby, Anna, who struggles with being designed to save her sister, having limited control over her body because of this and feelings of guilt when she wishes to discontinue procedures. Parents may be doing such things in the best interest of their children, but is it worth it when their children are likely to be hurt anyways? I think not.

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