Essay

Applied Genetics: Designer babies

Playing God made possible

The emotionally and physical feeble species that has been living and thriving in this planet, humans, has one aspect of which we share in everyone’s mind. We want to be perfect. Today, in the very fast going world, these instinctive principals are used in a more intricate and efficient way. Due to our natural behaviour, natural reproduction of which includes imperfections such as inherited diseases, is no longer accepted. The exact disease of which is very life threatening is the disease of haemophilia. Haemophilia is the disease of which makes the person of which inherited it bleed longer in injuries and may bleed internally in areas such us knees, ankles and elbows. This act of internal bleeding is very dangerous to the body as it can very well damage organs, tissues and might result to death. The disease is normally inherited from parents to children. People who inherit Haemophilia from parents have very little blood clotting. The proteins that clot the blood is called clotting factors. These clotting factors work together with platelets to stop blood from bleeding when blood vessels are injured. This act is called blood clotting. Haemophilia can very rarely be gotten through your lifetime and not gotten from birth. This is caused by the antibodies produced by your body of which attack factors in the bloodstream. This prevents the act of clotting from working properly. The human mind always looks for new innovations of which aid these aspects. After years of rigorous research, scientists have finally manufactured a new innovation to stop inherited diseases to be inherited to the baby. This innovation is called designer babies. "Designer Babies “is a terminology which roughly translates to controlled reproduction.  Enhanced modern reproductive technologies allow parents and doctors to screen embryonic for genetic diseases (gotten by heredity) and select the healthiest embryos. With these processes done,  we can mend genetic disorders that a baby will have (from heridity) and even to manipulate  desirable traits for the unborn baby, thus it is the process of 'creating the baby as the way we prefer them through the manipulation. The process of designing the actual baby is the process of in vitro fertilization or else known as IVF. The process first starts with the control of ovarian hyperstimulation. The process is done to prevent premature ovulation. The next step is to retrieve the egg of which uses a small needle which uses help from trans-vaginal ultrasonography. The third step is to of course let the egg fertilize with the sperm in order to develop in to an embryo.  The fourth step is to check whether or not the embryo quality is good enough. This is done through taking photographs of which the photos are going to be evaluated by the embryologist. Lastly, the embryo is transferred back in to the womb. This process is either done in the 3^rd day where 6-8 cells are formed or at the 5^th day it is at the blastocyst stage. Using this process, the babies with the selected traits should be able to be born safely. As perfect as it sounds, it does raise some moral and physical issues as it is still "underdeveloped"

Designer babies have countless of benefits. Despite this fact, the benefits fall into several general criteria. Designer babies allow parents to give their child a healthy life as it prevents inherited genetic disorders as you can pick out the genetics according to your needs. Genetically engineering babies is an option, not a requirement for all parents as of course some may not agree and it is only vital for picking and depleting genetic disorders. This of course allow parents set their own limits for genetically engineering their baby.With all scientific and technological enhancements in this current world allows both the parents and the doctors to do embryonic screening of which shows the baby. It also prevents the passing of haemophilia of which is a rare bleeding disorder where irregular blood clotting occurs. The disease can be inherited to generations after the descendent. The inheritance of haemophilia can differ according to the kind of haemophilia the carrier has.. If the descendent has the haemophilia type a or b,  The gene that triggers haemophilia is located in the x chromosome thus not allowing father to son inheritance. It most commonly gets inherited to boys and inherited through mother to son inheritance. If the carrier has hemophilia c, they can inherit the disease regardless whether or not they are the father or the mother and it can occur in both gender of children. 

Designer babies, like every other innovations that has been innovated in the world has a limitation. Designer babies also has a pros and cons factor like every piece of controversial technology in the world. Even though they can raise a potentially healthy and good-looking generations through the process of designing the babies through selecting the preferred genes, there are several of limitations that the innovation holds (aside the ethical issues). The succes rates of the process used to initiate the process, ivf, does not have a perfect success rate. This can lead to the loss of a child. Furthermore, as designer babies allow parents to pick out the best physical traits of their children, this could lead to an unbelievably uniform society. There would be no ethnicity existing in the world as everyone will look almost uniform. If ethnicity is banished, no variety will exist in the world and delete races in general. 

Due to the fact that designer babies is still a technology in development, it creates a certain upsetting balance scale in retrospect to the factors apparent in the world. As stated before, the process of designer babies allows parents to choose their preffered traits of their child. This can be seen as a double edged sword as in one side, it is a positive aspect for a couple and in the other side it is a quite negative  aspect. Designer babies allows parents complete and effortless control on the genes picked by the parents and gives no chance for the child to resent against the adjustments the parents had made to their body. This can of course lead to a major mental upset to the baby as once they develop and grow up, they will eventually learn about the fact that the child is actually a modified and in some instances "Factory created" product. Of course, no one wants to accept the fact that they are indeed fully manufactured by their parents and a factory made product. Secondly, the child will produce and emmit emotions and preferences. When he learns about the pheotypes that have been used to make him, he might not favour some of them like the parents favour them. This can again lead to a major mental upset and the child will at some point resent to the parent which is an occassion that should not be acceptable in any time or place. Thirdly, the issue of gender inequality will rise again but this time, it will make a literal comeback. In many societies, preferrences are heavy on one specific gender. For example, in societies such as India of which consider males as the dominant gender, this issue will strengthen. When the technology of designer babies reach societies like India, countless of males will be bred and the gender ratio will be imbalanced. The ideal sex ratio is 970 girls every 1000 boys. With the application of such technologies in countries like India, there would be too many males and the act of reproduction of the next generation will be quite slow or even not possible if the condition goes too out of hand. Lastly, some sort of equality between societies will make a return. This is depicted in sources of media such as the movie Gattaca. If this was the case, it would mean that some statuses of the society are not able to afford such technologies will be discriminated and taken as the inferior kind as the estimated cost 190.000 American dollars

In conclusion, designer babies are a great mender regarding to the issues of inherited diseases which are present in today’s world more specifically, Haemophilia. It provides close to total protection as you are able to screen and pick out preferable traits of which does not contain diseases. There are a countless of benefits that designer babies hold but the two essential benefits are the ability of choosing preferable traits in regards to physical appearance and preventing inherited diseases such as Haemophilia. There is also another side of the spectrum of which contains the limitations of designer babies. These include the manufacturing of a uniform society and also the only close-to-perfect success rate. As a whole, I am inclined to believe that designer babies are ready to be further developed and should only be commenced once these limitations are considered greatly in order to produce a flawless society.

Bibliography:

"'Designer Baby' - pros and cons." Today.Az -. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.today.az/news/yourcornenr/99530

"THE PROS AND CONS OF "DESIGNER BABIES"" The Ethics of Designer Babies. Wordpress, 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. 

Ly, Sarah. "The Embryo Project Encyclopedia." Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014. http://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ethics-designer-babies

"THE PROS AND CONS OF "DESIGNER BABIES"" The Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Ghose, By Tia. "Children to Order: The Ethics of 'Designer Babies'"LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

"IVF Process Step by Step: Egg Retrieval." In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Process Step by Step. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

"Treatment: Undergoing Controlled Ovarian Hyperstimulation | Sher Institutes for Reproductive Medicine." Sher Fertility Clinics. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"IVF Step-by-Step." - In Vitro Fertilization. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"The Embryo Project Encyclopedia." Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"What Is Hemophilia?" - NHLBI, NIH. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"What Causes Hemophilia?" - NHLBI, NIH. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

VM, Thomas. "Development Stages of Human Embryo in the IVF-Lab-Dr.VM.Thomas;PhD;FSAB - CFC." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Lee, Ellie. Designer Babies: Where Should We Draw the Line? London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2002. Print.

Images

"What Does Medical Ethics Look Like? Are You Also Searching for Medical Ethics Clinical Trials?" Cure Bytes RSS2. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"Hemophilia Genetics." Homecare for the Cure. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

"The Ethics of "Designer Babies"" The Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Post #3

What is Hemophilia?

Original Article: 

Hemophilia (heem-o-FILL-ee-ah) is a rare bleeding disorder in which the blood doesn't clot normally.

If you have hemophilia, you may bleed for a longer time than others after an injury. You also may bleed inside your body (internally), especially in your knees, ankles, and elbows. This bleeding can damage your organs and tissues and may be life threatening.

Overview

Hemophilia usually is inherited. "Inherited” means that the disorder is passed from parents to children through genes.

People born with hemophilia have little or no clotting factor. Clotting factor is a protein needed for normal blood clotting. There are several types of clotting factors. These proteins work with platelets (PLATE-lets) to help the blood clot.

Platelets are small blood cell fragments that form in the bone marrow—a sponge-like tissue in the bones. Platelets play a major role in blood clotting. When blood vessels are injured, clotting factors help platelets stick together to plug cuts and breaks on the vessels and stop bleeding.

The two main types of hemophilia are A and B. If you have hemophilia A, you're missing or have low levels of clotting factor VIII (8). About 8 out of 10 people who have hemophilia have type A. If you have hemophilia B, you're missing or have low levels of clotting factor IX (9).

Rarely, hemophilia can be acquired. "Acquired” means you aren't born with the disorder, but you develop it during your lifetime. This can happen if your body forms antibodies (proteins) that attack the clotting factors in your bloodstream. The antibodies can prevent the clotting factors from working.

Key Ideas:

• The disease is mostly inherited but can also be acquired through your lifetime (rarely)
• The disease causes the victim to bleed longer in injuries
• People who inherit it have very little clotting factors 
• People who acquire it have antibodies that disrupt the blood stream

Paraphrased:

One of the benefits of designer babies is the fact that it can prevent genetically inherited diseases to the next generation line. One of these diseases that are prevented through designer babies is Hemophilia. Hemophilia is the disease of which makes the person of which inherited it bleed longer in injuries and may bleed internally in areas such us knees, ankles and elbows. This act of internal bleeding is very dangerous to the body as it can  very well damage organs, tissues and might result to death. The disease is normally inherited from parents to children. People who inherit Hemophilia from parents have very little blood clotting. The proteins that clot the blood is called clotting factors. These clotting factors work together with platelets to stop blood from bleeding when blood vessels are injured. This act is called blood clotting. Hemophilia can very rarely be gotten through your lifetime and not gotten from birth. This is caused by the antibodies produced by your body of which attack factors in the bloodstream. This prevent the act of clotting from working properly.

Post #2

Ethical Issues of Designer babies

Original Article: 

A designer baby is a baby genetically engineered in vitro for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection. Before the advent of genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization (IVF), designer babies were primarily a science fiction concept. However, the rapid advancement of technology before and after the turn of the twenty-first century makes designer babies an increasingly real possibility. As a result, designer babies have become an important topic in bioethical debates, and in 2004 the term “designer baby” even became an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. Designer babies represent an area within embryology that has not yet become a practical reality, but nonetheless draws out ethical concerns about whether or not it will become necessary to implement limitations regarding designer babies in the future.

The prospect of engineering a child with specific traits is not far-fetched. IVF has become an increasingly common procedure to help couples with infertility problems conceive children, and the practice of IVF confers the ability to pre-select embryos before implantation. For example, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allows viable embryos to be screened for various genetic traits, such as sex-linked diseases, before implanting them in the mother. Through PGD, physicians can select embryos that are not predisposed to certain genetic conditions. For this reason, PGD is commonly used in medicine when parents carry genes that place their children at risk for serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. Present technological capabilities point to PGD as the likely method for selecting traits, since scientists have not established a reliable means of in vivo embryonic gene selection.

An early and well-known case of gender selection took place in 1996 when Monique and Scott Collins saw doctors at the Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, for in vitro fertilization. The Collins’ intended to conceive a girl, as their first two children were boys and the couple wanted a daughter in the family. This was one of the first highly publicized instances of PGD in which the selection of the embryo was not performed to address a specific medical condition, but to fulfill the parents’ desire to create a more balanced family. The Collins’ decision to have a “designer baby” by choosing the sex of their child entered the public vernacular when they were featured in Time Magazine’s 1999 article "Designer Babies". Though the Collins’ case only involved choice of gender, it raised the issues of selection for other traits such as eye color, hair color, athleticism, or height that are not generally related to the health of the child.

Prior to the Collins’ decision to choose the sex of their child, The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs released a statement in 1994 in support of using genetic selection as a means to prevent, cure or specific diseases, but that selection based on benign characteristics was not ethical. Some ethical concerns held by opponents of designer babies are related to the social implications of creating children with preferred traits. The social argument against designer babies is that if this technology becomes a realistic and accessible medical practice, then it would create a division between those that can afford the service and those that cannot. Therefore, the wealthy would be able to afford the selection of desirable traits in their offspring, while those of lower socioeconomic standing would not be able to access the same options. As a result, economic divisions may grow into genetic divisions, with social distinctions delineating enhanced individuals from unenhanced individuals. For example, the science-fiction film Gattaca explores this issue by depicting a world in which only genetically-modified individuals can engage in the upper echelon of society.

Other bioethicists have argued that parents have a right to prenatal autonomy, which grants them the right to decide the fate of their children. George Annas, chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights at Harvard University has offered support for the idea of PGD, and the designer babies that result, as a consumer product that should be open to the forces of market regulation. Additionally, other arguments in favor of designer baby technologies suggest that parents already possess a high degree of control over the outcome of their children’s lives in the form of environmental choices, and that this should absolve some of the ethical concerns facing genetic selection. For example, parents keen on establishing musical appreciation in their children may sign them up for music classes or take them to concerts on a regular basis. These choices affect the way a child matures, much like the decision to select certain genes predisposes a child to develop in ways that the parents have predetermined are desirable.

The increased ability to control and manipulate embryos presents many possibilities for improving the health of children through prenatal diagnosis, but these possibilities are coupled with potential social repercussions that could have negative consequences in the future. Ultimately, designer babies represent great potential in the field of medicine and scientific research, but there remain many ethical questions that need to be addressed.

Key Ideas

• Genetically enhanced babies might grow up into someone they don't want to be
• Will create genetic division where the lower socioeconomic class half of the population will be taken as the inferior kind as they cannot afford the process of designer babies.

Paraphrased

Designer babies, like every other choices and steps that we make forward in the world of biotechnology, clashes with the world of bioethics. The innovation of Designer babies created an upsetting balance in the ethical scales. First of all, designer babies created several conflicts regarding the social issues regarding the implications on the social conditions and "ranks" of the society. This regards to the fact of that some parts of the society might not be able to afford such services. This means that the wealthy would be able to use such services and select preferred traits in their children while the lower economic "ranked" population would not be able to function and afford such technologies. As a result to this crisis, divisions between society would be larger in the sense that more branches has been made regarding this issue. The branches include economic division of which we already have in the present of which will soon grow into genetic division. This means that the genetically enhanced and superior half of the society gain social distinction and deplete the reputation of the half of the society which is not genetically enhanced. This is also explored deeper in the movie Gattaca of which depicts a world which the high class jobs are only taken by the genetically improved half of the society. Lastly, designer babies grants full control to the parents regarding their traits and personality. This might turn into an ethical issue later on as the child develop to an adult as they will grow up regarding the paths that their parents pick. This gives the child no way to resent again their parents' choices as when they are enhanced they are only babies. 

Content:

• What are designer babies?
• What are some benefits of designer babies?
• Hemophilia (one of the diseases prevented to pass down)
• What are the limitattions of designer babies?
•   What issues (social, economic, ethical, political or cultural) are currently related to the use of designer babies worldwide? 

What are designer babies?

Source: Ly, Sarah. "The Embryo Project Encyclopedia." Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014. <http://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ethics-designer-babies>

"Designer Babies"is a terminology which roughly translates to controlled reproduction. Enhanced modern reproductive technologies allow parents and doctors to screen embryonic for genetic diseases (gotten by heredity) and select the most healthy embryos. With these processes done,  we can mend genetic disorders that a baby will have (from heridity) and even to manipulate  desirable traits for the unborn baby, thus it is the process of 'creating the baby as the way we prefer them through the manipulation. As perfect as it sounds, it does raise some moral and physical issues as it is still "underdeveloped"

What are the Benefits of designer babies?

As you may tell, designer babies have countless of benefits. Despite this fact, the benefits fall into several general criteria. Designer babies allow parents to give their child a healthy life as it prevents inherited genetic disorders as you can pick out the genetics according to your needs. Genetically engineering babies is an option, not a requirement for all parents as of course some may not agree and it is only vital for picking and depleting genetic disorders. This of course allow parents set their own limits for genetically engineering their baby.With all scientific and technological enhancements in this current world allows both the parents and the doctors to do embryonic screening of which shows the baby. It also prevents the passing of hemophilia of which is a rare bleeding disorder where irregular blood cloting occurs. The disease can be inherited to generations after the descendent. The inheritance of hemophilia can differ according to the kind of hemophilia the carrier has.. If the descendent has the hemophilia type a or b,  The gene that triggers hemophilia is located in the x chromosome thus not allowing father to son inheritance. It most commonly gets inherited to boys and inherited through mother to son inheritance. If the carrier has hemophilia c, they can imherit the disease regardless whether or not they are the father or the mother and it can occur in both gender of children. 
 Source: "THE PROS AND CONS OF "DESIGNER BABIES"" The Ethics of Designer Babies. Wordpress, 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. 

Limitations of designer babies

Designer babies, like every other innovations that has been innovated in the world has a limitatiopn. Designer babies also has a pros and cons factor like every piece of controversial technology in the world. Even though they can raise a potentially healthy and good-looking generations through the process of designing the babies through selecting the preferred genes, there are several of limitations that the innovation holds (aside the ethical issues). The succes rates of the process used to initiate the process, ivf, does not have a perfect success rate. This can lead to the loss of a child. Furthermore, as designer babies allow parents to pick out the best physical traits of their children, this could lead to an unbelievably uniform society. There would be no ethnicity existing in the world as everyone will look almost uniform. If ethnicity is banished, no variety will exist in the world and delete races in general. 

Source: "'Designer Baby' - pros and cons." Today.Az -. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.today.az/news/yourcornenr/99530

Ethical issues of Designer babies

Due to the fact that designer babies is still a technology in development, it creates a certain upsetting balance scale in retrospect to the factors apparent in the world. As stated before, the process of designer babies allows parents to choose their preffered traits of their child. This can be seen as a double edged sword as in one side, it is a positive aspect for a couple and in the other side it is a quite negative  aspect. Designer babies allows parents complete and effortless control on the genes picked by the parents and gives no chance for the child to resent against the adjustments the parents had made to their body. This can of course lead to a major mental upset to the baby as once they develop and grow up, they will eventually learn about the fact that the child is actually a modified and in some instances "Factory created" product. Of course, no one wants to accept the fact that they are indeed fully manufactured by their parents and a factory made product. Secondly, the child will produce and emmit emotions and preferences. When he learns about the pheotypes that have been used to make him, he might not favour some of them like the parents favour them. This can again lead to a major mental upset and the child will at some point resent to the parent which is an occassion that should not be acceptable in any time or place. Thirdly, the issue of gender inequality will rise again but this time, it will make a literal comeback. In many societies, preferrences are heavy on one specific gender. For example, in societies such as India of which consider males as the dominant gender, this issue will strengthen. When the technology of designer babies reach societies like India, countless of males will be bred and the gender ratio will be imbalanced. The ideal sex ratio is 970 girls every 1000 boys. With the application of such technologies in countries like India, there would be too many males and the act of reproduction of the next generation will be quite slow or even not possible if the condition goes too out of hand. Lastly, some sort of equality between societies will make a return. This is depicted in sources of media such as the movie Gattaca. If this was the case, it would mean that some statuses of the society are not able to afford such technologies will be discriminated and taken as the inferior kind.

Source: "THE PROS AND CONS OF "DESIGNER BABIES"" The Ethics of Designer Babies. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Ghose, By Tia. "Children to Order: The Ethics of 'Designer Babies'"LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.