The Commited MAY 2015 | Page 42

TED ATAKENT BAHÇEŞEHİR COLLEGE / 8-A Designer Babies: Great? Selenay PAZARBAŞI Is it the dream of parents, having a perfect child by using genetic alteration? Is that every parents’ wish? Before we can start to discuss this topic, we should know what a designer baby is. A baby whose genetic makeup is selected or altered to include a particular gene or to remove a gene associated with a disease is called a designer baby. 40 Ten years ago, it was a miracle to be able to choose what your child will look like. This method was discovered by a Chinese scientist named He Jiankol. He created the first genetically – modified baby in the world by using Crispy (a gen adding technology). There were twin babies who carried risks of being HIV positive, so the Chinese scientist, He Jiankol, altered the associated gene to make the twin babies resistant against HIV. With this intervention he made a great step to change the genetic health of the embryos to prevent the transmission of generelated diseases. This intervention will be highly developed, so we will have the opportunity to improve our child’s appearance and personality. This means having the chance to choose your favourite properties. For example, you can decide on your child’s eye colour, hair colour, gender, or if she/he will be generous/ honest/clumsy, etc. But is this really desirable or is it ethical? Would you like to order your child from a catalogue? Do we have the right to intervene into an unborn child’s personality? On the one hand, it doesn’t seem very ethical. We should consider that children might not like their appearance or their personalities. They may blame their parents for choosing their properties they don’t like and subsequently this may lead to an unhappy life. In addition, if we change the appearance and personality, we might damage their individuality. Furthermore, genes often have more than one use. It’s possible that while we change a property, we can accidently change another one. In my opinion, it should be legal if this method will be used for health. Gene technology gives a possibility to the babies who will probably be born with a genetic-disease such as down syndrome, Alzheimer’s etc. to have a healthy life. But this technology won’t be limited with health. You will also be able to edit your child as you desire. Even if it sounds wonderful, it neither seems ethical nor human. So, I argue that designing your dream child should be illegal. To sum up, like your child the way he/she is. https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Designer_baby