"Science does not know its debt to imagination."

Question:

“Designer Babies” is the term being used by the media to describe the future of modifying or selecting out children’s genes for desirable characteristics (medical and cosmetic). Are things getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes? In this blog, investigate social and ethical implications of this research and technologies that have been developed from it.

Genetic research has come a long way. From the discovery of cloning to manipulation of DNA and designer babies, humanity has definitely moved forward. Personally, I don’t think that research into the genetic process is getting out of hand at all. I believe that information is valuable and as long as there are still things to learn about it then we should strive to discover it.

As with all discoveries of new technology, there are bound to be positive and negative effects. Here are just a few.

Pros of Gene Therapy:

• Better genetics equal to elite offspring.

• No diseases or disorders.

• Medically, provide donors and genetic matches for people in need.

• Cosmetically, create a “perfect” child or one with traits desired by the parents.

• Advancements in technology and research.

Cons of Gene Therapy:

• Medically, if not researched enough, process could be flawed or fail.

• Morally, it goes against God as it taking the person’s characteristics and life into your hands. It can be used for mutations and for unethical purposes as some scientists may take advantage of this knowledge and “play God”.
  

SIMS 3!

Some of you may have heard of a PC game called SIMS 3, it's a very popular role playing game where you live life through a SIMulation or avatar. Basically, from the start you decide your character’s name, occupation, personality, and have complete control of all physical features from the nose shape to the arm width by means of the simplest way possible: With a computer mouse. That’s right, by clicking and dragging the arrows on features you can make them look exactly how you want it to. Here's a video example:

As you can tell, changing the look and shape of any of the features on the Sims is very simple. Unfortunately for us humans, changing physical characteristic is not as easy as clicking and dragging. Though this ease for editing is for game purposes of creating a character that looks like you or someone else specifically, we can agree that it also gives us a sense of power and what it would be like to create the "perfect" or "ideal" person.

Pro: Opposite of N00B. Also knows as Elite. Also known as... Designer Baby?

Who WOULDN'T want the power of DESIGNING your own baby?! You can pick and choose what your child will look like and how healthy they will be and who they’ll be and who their friends will be and how popular they'll be and how talented they'll become and how well they'll play sports and how great they'll be at school and how happy they will be in life!!!!!!!!

There are many parents who would like to simply pick and choose which traits they want their children to receive or discard from them. I personally believe that this reason for designing a baby is unnecessary and just a really bad excuse. We can only have so much control over the lives of future children BEFORE THEY'RE EVEN BORN.

There is new technology being researched that is supposed to make today’s plastic surgery seem primitive. “Gene therapy and commercial human cloning techniques are now offering the possibilities to radically change customers at the cellular level – making real substantive changes to the person rather than simply reshaping the exterior!”

Now, if the parents are certain that designing their baby is the only way to protect them from a certain lifestyle of disease or a disorder or so that they may help someone with special needs then they should be allowed to. If the cause is for the good of not just the parent's life but also the whole family and others as well then that is reason enough.

This first example is one of well intentioned parents:

Example One - GOOD Idea: My Sister's Keeper (Warning! Spoiler Alert!)

For any who didn't see the film, My Sister’s Keeper was about a girl named Anna Fitzgerald whose sister, Kate suffered from acute promyelocytic leukemia and basically, her family had her designed and born as a donor child. Taking parts from her since birth. Actually, in the story, their doctor himself suggested that they designed another perfectly matched child. The only setback was that because Kate was so dependent on Anna, Anna was unable to live a life of her own and got tired of always being experimented on and taken from. She had to endure a lot for her sister’s health which ultimately didn’t help as much as they had hoped.

Through the technology of designer babies, they were able to create a perfectly matched baby who did not carry leukemia as well. As you can tell, the Fitzgerald family’s intentions were good and purely for the benefit of their daughter’s health.

Example Two - BAD Idea: Story Time!

A person, let’s call him Guy-X, with a physical mutation like extra limb or lack of one may become a scientist to find a solution for this genetic deformity. In this case, let’s say that Guy-X has an extra limb and oddly shaped cranium.

Ok, sensible intentions there. His cause and research will give hope to those who are like him in the future.

Guy-X then goes to school and achieves a master’s degree in Genetics which was quite difficult because of prejudice based on his appearance. In fact, Guy-X’s life was hard overall. Let’s also say he starts teaching at a university, he is now a professor as well telling his story and inspiring others.

I think we all know where I’m going with this.

Next, Professor X finds a solution to avoiding mutations before birth using gene therapy! (Gene replacement to be exact) and he finally found his purpose in life but instead, by some crazy phenomenon he becomes evil and his plans totally change. He will now use his discoveries and experiments to create a mob, no, ARMY of mutants! *evil laughter*

He does this by extracting DNA from himself as well as other mutated animals and people that he has experimented on and acquires basically grows test tube babies that he adds the deformed genes to.

Apparently, throughout the years of experimenting and research, Prof. X reckoned that he would just create and gather an army of mutants to get revenge on all those who ever mocked him in his life/ He believes that mutants are the future. Yeah, he’s that sick.

Now, I was about to incorporate a human transforming serum into the story but I think that’s a little too far fetched as far as my story should go. I’m trying to keep it real. (AHAHAHAyeahright)

Then, Prof. X gathers the massive army of thousands and starts a world war of the normal peoples.

This is where I would have put the magical mutant serum to come in use. Normals turned into mutants one by one, almost instantly thus leading to an apocalypse and destroying human kind as they know it. But again, this is not some zombie apocalypse bootleg story. No. It’s an X-Men mutant world domination bootleg one.

Evidentially, without that magical unrealistic serum the army cannot grow. And without changing humans into mutants at a rapid rate and changing sides, the mutants will be defeated. Despite the weapons and artillery that they have, the mutants are no match for the entire world. Prof. X was not smart enough to think this through because his mind was blocked by revenge. Besides, he didn’t even have a PHD. So his plan would have failed.

So what happened?

Realistically, Prof. X just created a bootleg X-Men army because they’re overall, the deviations were technically just physical mutants and don’t actually have any special powers per se.

(Yes, I did actually make this story up... which would explain... a lot.)

REAL "Mutations"?! Could they be removed through gene therapy? (WARNING! THIS IS FREAKY!)

Lakshmi Tatama, a little girl from India was born in 2005 with four arms and four legs.

She was actually one of a pair of ischiopagus conjoined twins where one twin was headless due to its head atrophying and chest under developing in the womb. Which made one child look like it had four arms and four legs. Lakshmi was around two years old when she received surgery to remove that four extra limbs and is still alive today.

This is Abigail and Brittany Hansel. Born 1990 in Minnesota, they are highly symmetric dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins.

They have twospines and separate half-sacrums. Eachtwin controls and senses her corresponding arm and leg and a third central arm was amputated in infancy.

Now, I wonder: Are these kinds of deviations hereditary? Or did they just occur? Were they the 1 in a million? Could it have been prevented through gene therapy? I think that these cases of disorders are of course, very unfortunate because they hold these people back from living out life to the fullest as a normal individual. It prevents them from being treated the same way as everyone else and I'm assuming that after a while of being treated differently, you'd get irritated by it. If gene therapy could have prevented this then it would have come in handy and should have been used.

So is it Moral?

I, myself do not know if God would be pleased or displeased about gene therapy and designer babies but I think that the biggest deciding factor in all of this would be the intentions. I believe that whether is it moral or not is purely based on the reasons why this child is being designed a certain way as opposed to allowing God to “design” that person Himself. So really, what are its intended future purposes?

Like stated in my lists of Pros and Cons there are a lot of possibilities with gene therapy. If parents are certain that their child will most likely carry a disease or because of heredity then they will most likely be all for gene therapy then I say, why not? As parents they are only looking out for their child so that they may be able to live a full and happy life.

Take the mother in My Sister’s Keeper, she did what she needed to to get her daughter the kind of resources and donor that she needed. She loved her daughter enough to go through the whole process to sustain her.

Now, another kind of love. The kind of love that makes parents want their child to be physically perfect. Their intentions for the child’s benefit may be right but in the end, it’s all just for them to look better and feel better about themselves. Ok, so they design movie star gorgeous children. Who does that benefit? As far as the rest of humanity knows, it doesn’t. It only makes them feel elite and “perfect”. I believe that these motives are selfish and are done for self profit. I don’t think Jesus would like that too much.

Prof. X on the other hand had good intentions at first but eventually as all mad scientists do, find a different purpose for designing technology and manipulate it for their own causes. In his case, world domination and revenge which obviously, are not legitimate motives for gene therapy use. “Playing God” is probably the worst game that you can play. Ever. If you were meant to play God then you would be God but since you’re not. You’re not. So you shouldn’t try to abuse the power that has already been allowed to you.

In the end, I think that along with everything else in life, there must be purpose for each of our actions. Whether someone decides to design a baby or not has purpose and I believe that that is truly what makes it moral or immoral. I don't know if Jesus actually does like us designing our own offspring but when I ask myself, What would Jesus do? Well, just look around at the people you know. I'm assuming that most of them were not genetically designed in any specific way other than the way that God made them and basically, that's just the way that Jesus did it.

- Angel Lopez

Commented on...

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Bibliography

Lakshmi Tatma

My Sister's Keeper Movie

Young and Beautiful Cosmetic Surgery

Abigail and Brittany Hansel