Argumentative Essay: The Ethics Of Designer Babies

Designer babies, what are they exactly? Well, designer babies are human embryos that have been genetically modified, usually following guidelines set by the parent or scientist, to produce desirable traits. This is done using various methods, such as germline engineering or Preimplantation genetic diagnosis and is usually implanted using in vitro fertilization. Essentially, a designer baby is a baby made in a lab using an egg and sperm and then genetically modified based on what the parent wants. The embryo is then implanted into the uterus to grow as a normal baby. Traits that can be modified using this technology includes gender, appearance, intelligence, disease, and personality. There are many different viewpoints on designer babies though.

I say concerning because nobody really knows how safe it is, or what the possible side effects are. One skeptic, Marcy Darnovsky, said that “Some of the problems that have come up, including in the Chinese experiment, is with what’s called off-target mutation. There’s this thing described as a molecular scissor that’s supposed to have a homing device that’ll take you to the exact spot on the DNA strand that you want to cut, but sometimes it’s not that precise, it may go somewhere else and sometimes the change that it makes is not what you intended. Other times the change is made accurately in some of the embryonic cells but not in all of them, which leads to a condition called mosaicism that can lead to problems later in development. Another problem is that the scissors component of the system can hang around in the cell and later on, when you think you’re done, it starts snipping away. The term ‘gene editing’ helps people understand how the technology works, but it also suggests a level of precision and safety that at least for now isn’t there.” Furthermore, some people may need to use another women’s egg for this process, whether to replace their egg or to have in addition to their egg. Three-parent babies are human offspring with three genetic parents, created through a specialized form of in vitro fertilization in which the future baby's mitochondrial DNA comes from a third party. The

Therefore, if two parents are carriers of a certain gene that will disable their child, they can modify that gene to make a child that will not have that disability. As well as some parents will have designer babies to save another child they already have with a certain disease. In this method, parents will choose their child’s blood type and such in order for them to match that other diseased child and potentially give them their blood, marrow, and even organs. Genetically modifying a child’s chance of disease ensures that a child may live a life without potential disease and disability that they may have been more prone to had their parents’ not used this method. This also ensures a healthy life for a child that had a greater potential of having a medical condition due to their parents being carriers of that particular gene. However, many scientists say this is already possible in a much safer and less invasive way. It is far easier to genetically screen embryos for high-risk versions of genes following in vitro fertilization and prior to implantation in the mother. Not to mention, we already practice this as a society, for example, when smart rich people marry other smart rich people, they usually produce another generation of smart rich people; which is known as assortative mating. Another example is when a mother aborts a fetus that has a genetic defect, or when IVF