Is producing Designer Babies a beneficial thing?
I discuss Eugenic of Designer Baby problem.I disagree with this idea. I wouldn’t recommend making designer baby. I understand some people want to give birth to an ideal child. Rearranging the genes raises babies ability such as concentration, positivity, curiosity and even appearance such as eyes and hair color too. It sounds like eugenics is a perfect study for a designer baby but I am against this idea.
First of all, The genetic manipulation itself is still unknown and mystery. It is considered as a fact that they experiment on the human body. Sometimes, only using animal experiments is not enough to determine the cause of a disease or to verify that a treatment is effective, so human experiments are necessary for medical science to develop the technology. However, we can’t forget that there are so many people who die because of human experimentation. This involves very high risk. Currently, experiments and research without ethical conditions are not allowed. There are various conditions to test human experimentation. Of course they need a test subject’s agreement and that person need to know the method, purpose and how risk it has. The declaration of Helsinki states that medical research in humans can only be conducted if the importance of the purpose outweighs the risks and burdens of the subject. It means if the purpose for human experimentation is not that important, no matter how much the subject’s consent is obtained, it is not possible to conduct a human experimentation. Besides that it states the primary purpose of medical research involving human subjects is to understand the causes, development and effects of diseases and improve preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Based on these conditions, does making designer baby have a point? I don’t think so. This genetic modification technology originally used for diseases such as HIV and leukemia. It makes sense in the Helsinki declaration that this technology is used for diseases but in Designer babies, they are used for raising ability and appearance too. The problem is that is it sure that these purpose can outweigh the risk of death. As you can see, it is different from an operation or surgery. Designer baby puts babies in constant danger.
Second, it connects the gap between rich and poor. If we start making designer babies, gene editing could initially be out of reach for all but rich people, It’s not ethical approach that the more you have money, the more ideal intelligence and appearance you can get. This cause unfairness because inequalities in fund will exacerbate social injustice, for example, when the designer babies get common in our live, poor people will get low social status because of not only money but also appearance and ability. Imagine in school or work place, your social status is decided by your money. Even if you work so hard, you will be compared to people who originally have some good abilities and appearance because of gene editing. Parents economic force would decides children’ future like Edo period in Japan. During that time, The Tokugawa introduced a system of strict social stratification, organizing the majority of Japan’s social structure into a hierarchy of social classes. There were hierarchy of warriors(samurai), farmers, artisans, and merchants, with a portion of the population falling outside of this basic caste structure. Japanese people were assigned a hereditary class based on their profession, which would be directly inherited by their children, and these classes were themselves stratified with their own hierarchies. As the caste become down and down, their quality of life also gets down. Those who are in really low caste, they were held jobs that rest of population refused such as working in slaughterhouses, tanning leather, and performing execution. We already have the history that people in low hierarchy suffer from discrimination and had hard days. I expect that it would happen the same. thing if we start designer babies. We need to learn the mistake from the past.
Third, there is a problem of inequality by countries. Since human genetic engineering is a new technology, it is also true that there is no law on this. Designer babies are a technology that involves human life, so international legal regulations should be imposed as soon as possible. However, even if there are legal restrictions in each country, if a country permits designer babies, it will eventually be possible to travel to that country and perform designer baby surgery. This connects the differential disparities between each of the countries. While designer babies have many ethical issues, there is also a dilemma that it is beneficial for the country that designer babies give birth many highly talented children in the country. Some people might regret that they were born in that county either if they wanted to be a designer baby or not because they cannot decide what they wanted to.
In conclusion, I believe people don’t need to produce designer babies and don’t need to be perfect. As the saying goes 「 We are all different and all wonderful 」, weak points can be also considered as their personality as a wonderful part. My parents love everything about me include shortcomings and this is not only my parents, but also every parent does. By being similar to my parents’ faces and being told that fact by others, I feel happy that I recognize who I am. This actually deepens the bond of family. Therefore, I don’t think producing designer babies is the only good thing for children. People can’t decide children’s live without their permissions.
Airi Tsuchida 10270592
Sources
Declaration of Helsinki — ethical principles for medical research involving human subject
WMA — The World Medical Association-WMA Declaration of Helsinki — Ethical Principles for Medical…
Braku discrimination
