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Hold up! Have you gone insane?! Designer BABIES?! What in the world! Humans are NOT accessories. You don’t wear them, and they’re definitely not supposed to be for show! So who in the world would go as far as to genetically modify a little human being who has no say in their own life?
What exactly is a designer baby? Well, it’s a term that the media uses about scientists and doctors being able to actually genetically modify an embryo’s genetic make-up to change their cosmetic characteristics. Isn’t that insane? Surely no one would go as far as that…
I understand the need to genetically modify their children for medical reasons. But that’s only because they need it, or else they would be born defected and imbalanced to a point where they could no longer live a normal life, or would have to be taken care of for the rest of their lives. But to go and modify them (I prefer the word mutate, it’s more fitting) for their looks, now that’s ridiculous. You are taking away their individuality, their unique sense of person. If I found out that someone had messed with my genes for cosmetic reasons… How pissed off… I can’t even explain it!
Some couples go through InVitro Fertilisation (IVF) which is basically fertilising chosen eggs with the sperm in a ‘test-tube’ outside of the mother’s womb to reduce chances of genetic disorders, or, they screen the embryos for a genetic disease and only implant selected embryos back into the womb, which is called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis. These things, I have no problem with, because they’re trying to avoid a bad situation, and might as well subtract the small number from the equation before it is plugged into the main equation, right?
But you know what, that song, “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world!”… That would come true! We live in a man-made society, have you realized? And wouldn’t it make sense to be a Barbie girl in the midst of a Barbie world? Everything looks like it’s perfect but really, it’s not, it’s plastic, easily torn down and destroyed. Our perception of beauty is already distorted as it is, but imagine with the 'perfect' humans around, it'd be even more disastrous.
Some have argued that this is unnatural, immoral, and a violation of God’s laws. They believe that we are a different for a reason, and to try and change this with our own hands, instead handling it naturally, it’s wrong. Sure, it could start with changing little things, like our hairline, our earlobes, but eventually it would go on to changing our height, our artistic abilities, athletic abilities! The world would be competing at who has the better genes. The world will become even more catastrophic than it already is!
Our technology in the 21st century is advancing, and fast. Not that long ago, there was no such thing as a computer, yet a HAND-held computer (aka a laptop) and a hand-held phone (aka a cellphone). It’s almost as if we’re getting in over ourselves. C’mon, genetically modifying our children for vanity uses? In our society, we want to be beautiful. But naturally beautiful. Haven’t people realized this? Modifying a baby before they are born is no better than getting plastic surgery and claiming to be better looking or being able to do things better. It’s just the difference of being able to see the before and after when you get your surgery. It’s also wrong, the genetic modifications, because that child had no say in the matter, while plastic surgery, that’s all up to you.
I’m all for genetically modifying your genetics because of health risks, but other than that, it’s definitely ridiculous. That child will become ridiculed; with parents who had thought their child not be born good enough for them, so they had to go ahead and choose what their child to look like, like choosing that colour of sweater out of the catalogue. You can’t even trust that, because sometimes the colour in the magazine is so not the colour you wanted. That could turn out the same, trying to adjust your child’s looks.
So all in all, designer babies for vanity reasons? No way! Medical reasons, go for it! My arguments may not be able to change everyone's minds, but at least hear me out and think about it before you kill your child's pride in their own body before they even had a chance.
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genetic_engineering
http://www.ag.org/top/beliefs/contempissues_14_genetics.cfm
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