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.
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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