Designer Babies

What is a designer baby?



With the help of modern technology, doctors can now inspect embryos for diseases and illnesses. These embryos are later injected into a future mother to produce a healthy baby. Besides health concerns parents can now modify these embryos to eliminate unwanted genes and predetermine gender accurately along with several other attributes such as: height, blood type eye colour and hair colour.

How is this possible?

A procedure called IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) is used. In this process a woman is given fertility drugs in order to develop more eggs in her ovaries. A few hours later a needle is inserted into the woman’s ovaries to draw out fluid that contains her eggs. The eggs retrieved from the woman’s ovary are then mixed with sperm donated by the male partner and left in an incubator for 24 hours. During these 24 hours one of many sperm cells will penetrate the shell of the egg and begin fertilization, the cells will then divide and multiply becoming an embryo. These embryos are then inspected and selected according to the preferences of the parents. After a few days the selected embryo consisting of 8 cells will be transferred back into the uterus to form a pregnancy.

Is it right?

As a catholic the thought of designing my own child seems very unethical, the selection of several different attributes is unnecessary, it's sort of like we're playing God. But there's also a bright side to this practice, which is having the power to inspect an embryo for inherited illnesses and disease but even with that, this can expose our children to new unexpected illnesses.


All in all, some family's can find this very beneficial, especially family's with history of illness and disease but besides that we shouldn't turn “real life” into a game of Sims.



Sources: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987,00.html

Marks Bio Blog:
http://biologysbi-3u1-04.blogspot.com/2011/03/designer-babies-should-our-babies-be.html?showComment=1306915567748#c228086132594120254

Philip's Bio Blog:
http://biologywaytogo.blogspot.com/2011/05/recreating-creation.html?showComment=1306916062994#c7386153869648231631