Design-A-Baby
The ethical and moral aspects of genetic engineering are one of the biggest ongoing debates in the biomedical engineering field today deals with. Genetic engineering is a powerful and potentially very hazardous tool. Although the potential benefits can be huge, modifying the arrangement of nucleotides of the DNA that code for the construction of a complex living organism can lead to exceedingly harsh effects although the potential benefits can be huge. What began with crops and different types of plants may now be more than what anyone could have imagined. Having already been such a controversial topic with only the genetic modification of foods and some animals, an unbelievable uproar arose when scientists declared the next big thing: designer babies.
The term “designer baby” is “an informal title given to a baby whose genetic makeup has been modified by the means of genetic
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Hypothetically, the parents of the genetically engineered might request for a son with light skin, brown hair, and a marginal chance of disease, yet end up with a healthy son who is light skinned with dark hair but has a dreadful personality. Personality genes are difficult to interpret and therefore the personalities of these designer babies cannot be chosen for. The parents who sought a light skinned and brunette son may have unintentionally passed up the opportunity to have a child with a much nicer personality in the hopes of their child possessing specific physical traits. Also, selecting a certain type of gene, say for instance: hair color, may turn off the functions of another gene, like aging. Another example would be that the child’s intellectual ability could increase while possibly making him or her to be more susceptible to pain. This type of problem may not be evident until the baby is actually born. Moreover, the parents may not get what they