Designer Babies: A Genetic Analysis

• The technology of designer babies is bliss for the couples who are unable to have children because they do not their genetic disease which they have. Through the process of pre implantation genetic diagnosis the embryos are scanned for genetic diseases and if found that it has inherited genetic disease the genetic makeup of the baby is changed so that the child could be born disease free. PGD can screen for about a dozen of the most serious genetic diseases including: cystic fibrosis, Tay Sachs, various familial cancers, early onset Alzheimer’s, sickle cell disease, haemophilia, neurofibromatosis, muscular dystrophy, and Franconia’s anaemia. With further testing of the human genome it is said that nearly all of the genetic diseases could

One of the examples is Muscular Dystrophy (MD) which is a group of genetic and hereditary muscle diseases. It weakens the muscles of the body of the patient in some of the cases it very severe. If the parents want they can use IVF and PGD through which the doctors can screen each egg for muscular dystrophy .when the doctors find a embryo without the undesired disease they can implant it and reduce the chances of the disease to a great extent. By this method less money is spent in the hospitals for medical treatments needed for the sick child in the future and can save the parents from stress and suffering incurred looking after a sick child .Finally ,the couples now have a chance to create a healthy child that they could call their own.

• The use of reproductive technology would save children from suffering, and reduce the overall cost and emotional strain of looking after a sick child. Looking after a disease stricken child would become time consuming and exhausting after a while, and all this hassle could be eliminated by taking advantage of recent medical technology. No more sitters, no more special medical attention, and no more worrying. The price of the IVF and PGD would quickly pay for themselves in terms of the overall cost and emotional strain caused by raising a deathly ill

The only way to save Molly was to find a bone marrow donor and he best bone marrow match is typically with a sibling, but Molly was an only child. The Nash always wanted to have more children but due to the fear of passing this inherited disease to the other child too they never thought it as they were the carriers of the disease .The doctors then advised Jack and Lisa Nash to go through in vitro fertilization followed by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to choose an embryo that would have HLA genes that matched Molly and that would also be free of Fanconi anaemia. After four in vitro fertilization attempts, Lisa Nash gave birth to a baby boy, Adam, on August 29, 2000. Adam's placenta was gathered immediately and all the cord blood saved. Molly started chemotherapy to destroy her bone marrow and received a transfusion of the cord blood cells a month later. The transplant cured Molly's bone marrow failure, but she still suffers from Fanconi anaemia and visits the doctors 35-40 times a year to screen for solid-tumour cancers. A common cold could have dire consequences for her, but her bone marrow is functioning normally. This was the first case where saviour sibling was used to cure the already existing