Genetic Engineering: Risky Business

Designer Babies

Pros:

• It will produce healthy children, who will be valued greatly and contribute to society.
• Designing babies also prevents genetic disease.
• Infertile parents can also have children.
• Parents will not have to spend as much money on health care with genetically engineered babies, which will lead to less stress and financial difficulties.
• There will be greater life span and intelligence among the human race.
• Allows parents to choose the gender of the baby to meet personal desire or prevent gender-related conditions
• Could help avoid defects that would cause the child to be alienated by others

Cons:

• Since people with money will “design” their babies, a genetic underclass will be created. This will essentially lead to segregation between ‘classes’: the elite and the non-elite.
• There are many risks involved in genetically engineering babies.
• Mutations and defects are common, which gives an unfair disadvantage to an innocent child.
• Embryos are thrown away. This is considered unethical by many, and can be considered murder.
• A population of “super humans” was to be created, then certain stereotypes of what the “perfect human” could be would form. This could lead to further segregation and class conflict.
• Some consider it an arrogant to attempt to control nature at such a big level
• Could provide unfair advantages in things like athletics
• People could fear genetically altered humans and discriminate against them

My Opinion:

In my opinion “designer babies” should be banned, because a hierarchy in society will be created. The people with money will clearly pay to “design” their babies to give them the best possible future. However people without money wouldn’t be able to afford this. Segregation and discrimination will form if Designer babies are embraced in the future. For this reason I think further research into designer babies should be discontinued.