**Ellier's Biology Blog**: December 2009

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 babi

es 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 uniqu

e 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.