Tharajan's Bioblog: November 2010

Designer babies, these were only known to be found in sci-fi movies and in the dreams of kids. Now, "Designer babies" can be found in our dictionaries and textbooks. In the Oxford Dictionary, designer babies are defined as, "a baby whose genetic make-up has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure that a particular gene is present". Designer Babies allow you to take advantage of present technology to choose and design one's perfect baby. In the cartoon image on the on the left, we can see that the in the cartoon image above, we can see that the mother of the child wanted the child to become a biochemist as her perfect child. But its obvious that you cannot turn a baby into a biochemist with designer babies.

Highly Developed reproductive technology now allows parents to check their embryos for any type of disorder and to even select a healthy embryo instead. This new reproductive technology uses In-Vitro Fertilization or IVF. This is an amazing thing, it can fertilize eggs outside the mother by placing the eggs with sperm in test-tubes in a special lab. After some researching, BBC stated that the 4 Steps of Creating a Designer Baby. An embryo is created with In-Vitro Fertilization. A cell from this embryo is removed within the first 5 days. The cell is tested genetically. The parents have a choice of whether to discard the embryo or implant it into the mother's womb. Now, you might be wondering, why would people want to go through this process when it goes back into the mother's womb at the end. Well there are several reasons why. One reason. A second reason is to screen for diseases such as Huntingdon's disease and Cystic fibrosis or genetic conditions such as Down Syndrome. A third reason is to create a healthy baby to treat a sick sibling. The fourth and final reason is to select the sex of a future child.

With the new concept of Designer Babies, many problems have been removed from the embryo and characteristics of the embryo can be predetermined. In addition to that, gene therapy allows scientists to actually decide the gender of the baby they want to have. It is believed that in the future, technology will actually allow us to decide the height, appearance, eye color, hair color, IQ and many other aspects that can be decided before birth. Most people believe that is actually interfering with the laws of nature. With all this, there is uniqueness will not be a characteristic of new born babies. Believe it or not, critics believe that the practice of genetic therapy will lead to a new race of people (Very unlikely in my opinion). The main issue is that now with everyone taking advantage of this opportunity, the people who don’t will become social outcasts. People with genetic disorders will have the same fate.

Bibliography

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http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/445775-266-19.jpg

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Sunday, November 28, 2010