The paper discusses Designer Babies, which is an emerging genetic technology that allows parents to select specific attributes they would want their children to have. While there only two procedures that are legally permitted for this procedure, it has certain potential dangers that are discussed. This is followed by a brief overview of the recent or current trends in technologies for designer babies.
Designer babies is an issue that has attracted huge controversies in the recent past since it a term that implies the co modification of children and was derived from the concept of designer clothing. Generally, this term refers to the use of pre-implantation of genetic diagnosis to choose desired characteristics of a child. Furthermore, designer babies consider the production of children through genetic engineering of human zygotes, embryos, or gametes. The pre-implantation process, which is also known as embryo screening, involves procedures carried out on the embryo before implantation. In some cases, the pre-implantation procedure is conducted on oocytes before fertilization. Notably, designer babies is a concept that has been used by journalists to describe the frightening situation of using genetic technologies to modify embryos while choosing the cosmetic or desirable attributes ("What is a Designer Baby?" par, 2).
Technologies in Designer Babies:
As previously mentioned, designer babies involves the use of genetic technologies to carry out the pre-implantation of genetic diagnosis. The genetic technologies originate from improved reproductive technologies that enable parents and physicians to examine embryos for genetic disorders and choose healthy embryos. While the term is not used by scientists, the advanced reproductive techniques incorporate the use of InVitro Fertilization for fertilization of eggs through sperm in test-tubes. Since this process involves using sperm in test-tubes, the process is usually carried out in a laboratory and outside the mother's body. During the process, physicians and parents have the chance of minimizing the probability of the child to be born with any genetic disorder.
As a new procedure in the medical field, there are only two types of advanced reproductive technologies that can be used on humans legally. The first technique involves selecting the kind of sperm to fertilize the egg in order to determine the baby's genes and sex. The second mechanism involves screening an embryo for a genetic disease, though some of the chosen embryos are implanted back to the mother's body, which is commonly known as Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis. Generally, the emergence of designer babies is attributed to rapid advances made by scientists in the knowledge of human genome and in the ability to transform and change human genes.
Potential Dangers of Designer Babies:
While the emergence of the concept and procedures of designer babies is a reflection of advances in the medical field i.e. genetic technologies, it has been associated with several dangers and concerns. These dangers and concerns are because the advances are regarded as morally problematic, which results in huge controversies. One of the legal concerns regarding designer babies is that if people are permitted to design their own babies, it could contribute to dangerous sexual selection (Brenan par, 3). There is a probability that parents may choose unwanted and harmful unevenness in sex ratios upon the children's maturity is the parents are permitted to choose the sexes of their babies.
The second legitimate concern is that the developers are likely to damage the technology and procedures. This would in turn hurt the children instead of promoting their design, which an issue of acceptable risk and safety of the designer babies. The likelihood of damaging the technology is attributed to the fact that acceptable risk and safety is an issue that affects any new technology or drug. Finally, advances in genetic technologies that result in designer babies are faced with the concern that they may contribute to unpleasant imbalances of ability. Actually, some people argue that well-off parents may use the technology to give their children a competitive advantage, which could widen current divisions in the society.
Current Trends:
Even though designer babies is a concept that has attracted huge debates and controversies, there are various emerging trends in genetic technologies. This is primarily because the moral and legal concerns raised regarding the process have not prohibited doctors and parents to continue with the procedures, though with some limitations. While the society has recognized the potential dangers associated with designer babies, the concept is still carried out in today's medical field.
An example of the current trends is the decision by The Silicon Valley personal genetics company to accept a patent for a system that promotes the creation of designer babies. The company's patent system is an application through which potential gamete buyers can select desirable characteristics of their children. After selecting the desirable characteristics, the application generates a list of donors ranked by odds. The ranking is based on the possibility of the donor's DNA to produce the desired attributes when mixed with the parents (Scott par, 2).
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