Designer Babies, the Controversial View of New Born Beings

DESIGNER BABIES,

THE CONTROVERSIAL VIEW OF NEW BORN BEINGS

Imagine a world in which people could choose the physical and intellectual characteristics of their kids before them being conceived, or modify babies characteristic when they are in the bailey of mom. Or imagine a couple sitting in a waiting room, watching a catalogue about how they want the color of eyes, shape and color of hair and skin characteristics of their child. This looks like kind of crazy, but actually there are many researches that aim to make this possible. With genetically engineering, the manipulation of genes for the purposes before mention is possible, but there are many problems constituted around this topic. If genetic engineers achieve their purpose to modify genes on in vitro fertilization, it would bring troubles in different aspects to the world?

“Designer baby: a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics”

Oxford English Dictionary.

The designer babies can be a new option of having the dreamed child because the genetically engineering provide the possibility to change physically how the babies are, but also can make babies more healthy or with more elevated intellectual conditions, good manners and dreamed behaviors. Looking at this, we have to take into account the different implications that this practice can have, not just to the parents and the modified baby but also in terms of sociocultural patterns. Next there are some of the different implications that could have in future times the genetic modification of people. First, the personal implications could be so serious in terms of what modified population thinks about it. It means that a person which is genetically modified after born could have a lot of questions about how he or she could be if were not modify, or how could be their life if the modification never existed, bringing to them physiological troubles. This population can feel that their rights are abused because they didn’t take the decision to be changed of how they were naturally.

The quest of perfection that is searched with this scientific method does not make sure that parents will love their children as well as if they were not genetically modified. This also is making people be a product that could not been well seen in social terms. Thia Ghose quotes in her article[1] related to the ethics of designer babies the different conception the specialists have about some ethic aspects of the design babies.

“Yet most of the major medical societies, such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), have wildly different attitudes about when and where these techniques should be allowed, the study noted. The ASRM typically defers to a client's wishes on issues such as sex selection, for instance, whereas the ACOG advocates prohibiting sex selection because of its potential to lead to sex discrimination against women in society”.

Considering that these practices are not legal in the world and also tis genetically modification are not well seen in moral and religious statements, the development of designer babies would fight with social paradigms to living as a community, becoming a controversial topic and starting an ethical fighting between values and scientific development; Michael Catalano in them article[2] about the design babies talks about the possible benefits genetic manipulation can bring to our society and how this matter could be a fashion thing in the future.

He makes a research about the views of his partners about design babies and how their opinion change if they hear other people will have babies smarter, healthier or more beautiful than theirs, nowadays is common to think that situation will be possible soon, and that idea bring to our minds a lot of moral contradictions, usually we can think that the fact of change some characteristics of our children before they born is a horror against the nature, but what if that can prevent to bequeath them some genetic disorder or avoid the possibility of down syndrome or Alzheimer we can reconsider our feelings regard to it.

Now there are a position in which can be consider that genetically modifications can take out the condition of humanity of next generations affecting entire societies, becoming new people on “Post humans”. All of this is because when DNA is modified will affect in a big way the genes of the next babies, creating