Designer Babies

In my opinion, this topic shouldn't even exist.  Designer babies?  They're looking into ways for producing babies of your likings.  I find this completely ignorant because you should not be able to choose what type of baby you want.  You should not be able to choose what color eyes it should have, if it should be a boy or girl, or if it should be smart, funny, cute, or anything else.  This way of choosing a baby totally defeats the purpose of even having one.  Having a baby is a way of showing how much a couple loves each other.  Enough for them to bring a life into the world.  That's what defines the baby, through their parents and through their genes.  Being able to choose what your baby looks like ruins the essence of having a kid you will love.  You should love your child regardless of their looks or personality.  Why? Because that baby is created from you.

There are many reasons as to why this may be a reasonable idea, and there are many pros and cons to this topic.

The pros of having  designer baby would to be creating a baby with slim chances of having a disease.  With designer babies, you can alter the genetic processing of the child so it will not end up with Down Syndrome or  a rare blood disease such as Diamond Blackfan Anaemia.

Another pro with designer babies would to be able to choose the types of organs or blood to be able to be donors to family members in need.  The first designer baby, named Adam Nash was born wit ha specific selected embryo in order to save his dying sisters life.

Although the pros may seem to be compelling, there are also cons to the topic.  Many people see creating designer babies is a way of playing with God.  Since you are being able to choose the color of skin, hair, and eyes, with the world we live in, the level of discrimination with most likely increase. 

The thought of designer babies seem very appealing but no one truly knows how designer babies are created.  As an untested project, your baby can end up with a biological disease because of the alterations in womans eggs. 

           On the other hand, those who are deemed worthy of using the concept of a designer baby should be able to use it.  But there should always be restrictions.  Basic genetic processes should be available, but not to the point where there WHOLE entire baby is changed, it should always have a human resemblance to the parents.

There is also another thing I am worried about when it comes to genetic processing.  The ability to abuse this gift is also open.  The concept of the idea is reasonable in some sense, but there is always limitations, and those are easy to surpass.  There will be one day when a person decides to completely morph a child, with things such as extra fingers, an extra leg, two brains, two hearts, and so on.  But regardless of the creation, a life is still worth a lot, regardless of the appearance.  I just don't approve of choosing how your baby should look like, the appearance should reflect the parents and how much they appreciate their child God has given them.

REFERENCES 

Priya Johnson. (n.d). Pros and Cons of Designer Babies. In Intelligent life on the web. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies.html.

Nicholas Agar. (April 6, 2006). Designer Babies: Ethical Considerations. In ActionBioScience. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html.

Blogs I commented on

Kendra: http://itsbiotime.blogspot.com/2010/11/build-baby.html?showComment=1298605427002#c4476832194309834120

Vanessa: http://vanezzabioblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/designer-babies.html?showComment=1298605947841#c8289239184677262808

        Facts have shown that the tiger population throughout Asia has dropped from 100,000 to around 3,200 in a short period of time. As world world leaders around the world gather to help save the tigers from extinction, actor Leonardo DiCaprio has committed $1 million to the World Wildlife Fund to urgent tiger conservation efforts through his fund at the California Community Foundation. 

Leonardo helping set up sensors on tiger habitat ground.

Leonardo has recently visited countries such as Nepal and Bhutan with WWF experts, touring tiger habitats with the anti-poaching staff, while being educated on how the WWF scientists monitor the tigers.  Not only has he been learning about the park's and tigers, Leonardo DiCaprio, joined forces with the WWF to help raise $20 million for tiger conversation through the Save Tigers now campaign. 


        It's easy to believe that Leonardo's money is going straight to helping build new habitats and homes for the tigers, but it's also hard to say that the money is going to be used to build houses for the tigers to live in.  Although Leonardo's money is going towards funding the 12 main tigers shelters,   The money seems as if it will not be used to build homes but the money will be spent on the necessities tigers need to survive.


        It is shown that Leonardo DiCaprio is proof that human intervention is being used positively to affect the biodiversity of our ecosystems.  Although he is a celebrity and has committed $1 million to the WWF, normal people like us have the power to help the bio diversity of our ecosystems as well (donating small amounts of money will also help any organization.) There are many ways us humans can help, such as preventing yourself and other to not buy products made from tiger skin or teeth.  This method doesn't strictly inform you to not buy only tiger skin, but also trying to prevent yourself from buying any animal made product.  Studies show that after poaching, habitat destruction is the next biggest threat to the tigers.  Buying forest-friendly products made from sustainable forestry and agriculture operations will also help the prevention of tigers.


Kaitlin  : http://yay4bio.blogspot.com/2010/09/eight-year-old-receives-wwf-philippines.html?showComment=1295402032927#c4648112281950686918

Vanessa: http://vanezzabioblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/unit-2-bio-blog.html