Blue Eyes or Brown Eyes Would You Like Some With That?

Modern technology has become so advanced throughout the past decades that putting a stop to it seems almost impossible. It has already allowed scientists to screen embryos for a baby’s gender and even for any genetic disorders he/she may have, but it doesn't just stop there. When genetic disorders are detected in the embryo, there’s actually a way to cure the disorder through gene therapy, by removing abnormal genes and replacing them with healthy ones. One of the newest kinds of technology that scientists are working on is “designer babies”, as the media calls them. This will give parents the ability to select which genes they want their children to inherit. I think that designer babies are just crossing the line. Not only will they create social chaos, but there are so many reasons to why the overall idea is just so wrong.

Designer babies are created through In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) combined with genetic engineering. IVF allows eggs to be fertilised by sperms outside the mother’s body in “test tubes”. After a few days, a cell will be removed from the embryo and will be genetically tested. Then the parents will decide if they want to keep this embryo by putting it into the womb, or discard it. Discarding an embryo…hmm…doesn't that sound almost exactly like killing a new life? Anyways, before the embryo is placed in the womb, the parents can also have genetic engineers modify the embryo’s DNA to create the “perfect child”. They will be able to choose the gender, eye colour, hair colour, height, intelligence level, etc. Now I find that disgusting. Why is the world so obsessed with perfections?

In a society where there is a wide variety of different people, each person is unique and special in their own way. Designer babies however, will most likely decrease the diversity in our world. For example, many people may choose blue eyes over brown for their child, if they had that choice. People with uncommon traits will no longer be so special anymore. We often hear the phrase, “it’s the inside the counts”, but I don’t think we have grasped that concept yet. Not only will people in the world look more and more similar, but designer babies will be superior to normal babies, since their looks, intelligence, athleticism and more have been modified to make them perfect. Designer babies will make the world lose its humanity; I find it hard to even consider them humans.

There are so many unmoral aspects of designer babies. First of all, as stated in a previous paragraph, when an embryo is discarded, a life is basically discarded. It is completely unfair for a person’s life to be ended before it even began. Would a parent not love their child if he/she did not turn out the way they expected? Love has nothing to do with appearance, or at least it shouldn’t. Being a designer child can definitely affect the child himself or herself. Think about how children will feel when they find out that they have been genetically modified to turn out the way they did. A million questions would be rushing through their minds. They will wonder if their parents would still love them if they did not turn out the way they did and if their parents would not have wanted them if they did not turn out that way. Designer babies would change the definition of love. If parents really loved their children, they wouldn’t care how they looked or how smart they are. Having a child is probably the most exciting thing for a couple. The anticipation of finding out the baby’s gender and its inherited traits are all part of the journey. If a couple really wants to modify their child to make if their “dream baby”, then they might as well buy a robot.

One last thing that I would like to mention is the fact that the cost of designer babies will definitely not be cheap. This probably suggests that only rich people will be able to afford them. Now if the rich can make their children more beautiful and smart, a bigger gap will be created between the rich and the poor. Is that really what we want? Also, with the economic crisis these days, people cannot afford to dig out more money to fund this research?

I really think that designer babies are a waste of time and money. The idea of being able to prevent disease by replacing genes does not sound too bad to me, but I doubt people will be able to control themselves from throwing in some cosmetic genes. Parents may even have fights over choosing the traits of their children and children will actually be able to blame their parents for any problems they may have. All in all, many problems will break out in families over these designer babies. We cannot really say that things are getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes; because we are the ones who have let it all happen.

Sources:

What is a designer baby? - http://www.bionetonline.orb/English/content/db_cont1.htm

Designer Babies - www.time.com/time/magazine/

Designer Babies: Ethical Considerations - http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html

Designer Babies: A Right to Choose? - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/

Picture 1 - http://www.momlogic.com/images/designer_baby_shopping2_pm-thumb-270x270.jpg

Picture 2 - http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2009/02/in-vitro-fertilization-2.jpg

Picture 3 - http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/2009/03/03/images/babies_400.jpg

Picture 4 - http://bazanye.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/trimmed_stack_of_100_dollar_bills_21.jpg

Picture 5 - http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/11.09.00/gifs/baby2-0045.jpg

Commented on:

Kayla Villeda - Pimp Your Baby?? - http://kaykay-93.blogspot.com/

Laura Woo - Designing our Future with Babies: It's All About the Control - http://bioblogsbi3u.blogspot.com/2010/01/designing-our-future-with-babies-its.html

Oil Spills...Yucky and Deadly...

Humans have great potential to change the environment in just a short period of time. By changing the environment, we are also greatly impacting the things that live there. As "stewards of the world", we are not doing a very good job of taking care of our planet and maintaining biodiversity in our ecosystems. Sometimes our negative impacts may just be accidents, but most of the time, we are carelessly doing what we do, without considering the consequences of our actions.

One major human intervention that has negatively affected our ecosystems' biodiversity is oil spills. In most cases of oil spills, the oil is either gasoline or crude oil. These spills, coming from ships, land runoffs, waste dumps, and more, have become a major issue in water bodies all around the world. Although they are not intentional (hopefully..), there is not enough action being taken to rid water bodies of this harmful substance. As soon as an oil spill occurs, people should get right on the case to clean it up, so that it doesn't spread and affect the organisms that live in the area. Many oil spills could be prevented if only they are cleaned up fast enough. However, most of the time, these spills are just left in the water, which spreads all over the place and ends up along shores. Here is a video of one of many oil spills that were left unattended, which in turn, became almost impossible to fully clean up.

There are many different organisms affected by oil spills and there are many different ways that these organisms can be affected. All animals living in the area of an oil spill are exposed to the dangers of the harmful substance. Organisms such as filter-feeders can easily get their feeding and breathing mechanisms clogged if they encounter oil. This will result in their death, because obviously, organisms cannot live without eating or breathing. One reason to why killer whales are endangered is oil spills, because when their blowholes are plugged with oil, they cannot breath. Fishes often consume the oil from oil spills and this creates toxins in their body and would eventually kill them. This toxin is passed down the foodchain and ends up killing many other animals along the line. When birds try to take a shower in the water (not knowing that there is oil in there), they end up completely covered in oil. This would result in them trying to clean themselves by licking off the oil, which in the end, kills them, just like the fishes. All marine animals and many kinds of birds are exposed to the danger of consuming the oil from oil spills. This oil can even cause cancer in them! How terrible is that! Many of these animals may become closer to the endangered species list if oil spills keep invading their habitats without being cleaned up.

Animals can suffer and die from oil spills even without consuming it. When birds are covered in thick oil, it would be hard for them to fly due to the heaviness of the oil. Also, animals often become blind when the oil enters their eyes. This makes them more vulnerable to predators, since they cannot see where they're going. When animals, such as sea otters, get covered in oil, their air bubbles will be blocked. This will take away their abilities to stay warm, which means that they can no longer survive in the cold oceans. If one animal becomes extinct due to oil spills, a whole group of animals may be next in line. For example, when hundreds of plankton die because of oil spills, fishes in that area will no longer have food, followed by the killer whales. When oil spills kill one kind of animal, it can damage an entire food chain.

One major oil spill incident occurred in the year of 1989 in Prince William Sound of Alaska. The Exxon Valdez, an oil tank completely loaded with crude oil, hit a reef not far from two different shores. This incident caused 11 million gallons of crude oil to be spilled! There were not enough efforts to clean up this spill, so this incident alone was able to endanger many species in that area. Twenty tons of dead birds and sea animals have been collected along the 550 miles of the beach! If the company hired people right away to clean up the spill, a big majority of these animals would not have died.

It is such a pity to watch so many animals die as an outcome of human carelessness. Although some oil spill cases have been dealt with, there is still a lot more to be done about them. As said before, humans have much potential to change the environment in just a short period of time, so why don't we use this potential to make some positive changes? Humans have become such spoiled creatures thinking that they can live off the planet without contributing to it. Well, little do many of us know how much our ways are wreaking havoc in the environment. If we don't start picking up our pace in undoing all the damage we have already done, the biodiversity of our planet will be in great danger!

Sources:

"Effects on marine life"

http://www.murrenhil.com/index.phy?id=R

"Endangered Species Handbook"

http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/aquatic_oil.php

"Human Impact"

http://www.gma/org/surfing/human/impact.html

"Man and His Environment"

http://www.biol.andrews.edu/everglades/ecosystems/human_impact/human_impact_index.html

"Oil Spills"

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm

Commented on:

"Humans: Invasive and Stewards?" by Jenny Yeung.

http://the-nature-of-life.blogspot.com/

"Global Warming and Biodiversity" by Vanessa Valsan.

http://valsanbioblog.blogspot.com/