HI!

IT'S DYLLIS, LIWEN, IRENE AND JINGQING AGAIN! :)
and today we've came together to evaluate all of the solutions that we have each presented in our posts.

We're currently brainstorming on what would happen next if our solutions were put to use.


I'm sure all of you reading this would want to know what the world would be like according to our imagination, so here goes!

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DYLLIS'S SUGGESTION: Creation of Designer Babies should not even be legalised.

Why?

If designer babies are allowed, there would be much disputes throughout the world! Government policies would have to be reviewed and renewed. Ethical issues and further medical complications would cause unrest amongst the society.

What would follow?

The world would be how it used to be without the presence of designer babies. However, this does not mean that technological advancement should not be utilised, because change is the only constant and mankind would always continue to progress. In my opinion, instead of creating the ideal form of a human being,techonology should be used for a greater cause, such as curing diseases and relieving people of their sufferings.

On the other hand, not legalising designer babies would mean that the advantages that it comes with the development of the technology are being overlooked. People who could have been mitigated from their illnesses would continue to suffer, lives that could have been saved would be lost, possibilities of creating a better life with less misery would be destroyed. Disputes and tension would arise between those in the medical expertise and the strict religious followers. Would doing this be suppressing and restricting our potential for advancement and growth? If we were to continue banning new technology to prevent conflicts, industrial development would slow down drastically and disputes would still arise.





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IRENE'S SUGGESTION: Advocate proper values and morals.

Why?

This is to ensure that everyone understands that the world cannot be perfect. As the common saying goes,

"It's our imperfections that make us perfect."

The beauty of an individual lies in how we're so different from everyone else. It's how although we may have flaws, they allow us to blend in nicely together and complement each other like how all living things do on earth. We need to start seeing the beauty in imperfction, instead of being caught up with achieving the humanely impossible state of impeccability.

What would follow?

More arguements, more conflicts, more disputes.

As pleasant and immaculate this suggestion may sound, there is no exact definition of "correct values and morals". Every different race and religion have their own views on the situation. To force feed them with another set of morals they have to live by would result in more confusion to a question that does not have a defnitie answer for. And that is the question as to whether it is right to customize a life of another human being. Furthermore, what would these values be based on? Who has the right to claim that those values are correct?

When a decision is made based on those set of unjustified values, that would lead to social unrest.
Petitions, mobs, riots. Those are the things I see in future if this were to be carried out, and there's thus much irony in it. We use techonology to make life better and easier for us, and yet it creates problems that were nonexistant to begin with.

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LIWEN'S SUGGESTION: Create designer babies with parent's defective gene removed.

Why?

Befiore I go on to explain why, I would like to reilliterate my stand that I only agree to the creation if a Designer Baby to the betterment of the new life created and not just tailored for the needs of the parents. My suggestion means that the child would have his/her parents genes, except for the one which causes diseases.

I feel that it's important because with the actual genes of parents would bring them closer to the child as compared to when a child has a whole new set of genes. We cannot deny the fact and totally eliminate the advantages that comes with the idea of Designer Babies.

JINGQING'S SUGGESTION: Disallow enhacements in terms of aesthetics, academics, atheletics development.

Why?

When everyone engages in a mad rush in search for perfection, they're forgetting that perfection only exists when there are flaws. If they were to endown themselves with all the best qualities currently available, there would still be more desirable qualities in future which they cannot achieve and thus have failed in their pursuit for perfection. But even with this given fact, most would still strive to achieve as near flawlessness as possible and if were to be given the quality they yearn for, they would be too caught up in their own perfect world and they lose out in the greater joys of life. Mass production of such people would lead to a society filled with superficial and self-centered citizens who would cause the slide of society's moral values.

[and since the points we have brought up are about the same, the consequences to the solutions would also be similar]

What would follow?

Ethical issues would no longer be prevalent because they'd first existed due to the beliefs that a human being should be allowed to lead a normal life. With this policy, those who had to suffer would be given a chance to have a life free of sufferings and the burden of a disease. The world would be a better place without as many people suffering and relieved of pain. But is this really a solution for gene-related diseases? We have much faith in our fellow mankind that a way to impede the passing down of such diseases would soon be discovered. Until then, this would be a temporary solution to the problem.

However, the government would have a hard time trying to come up with exceptions and a list of citeria one has to fulfil to create a Designer Baby. With the renewal of policies, comes the inevitable gush of controversies between the people who disagree to the added or removed regulations.

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After the session of thorough brainstorming, we must have come to a conclusion.

So what is it?

We've realised that regardless of how we choose to view the situation no matter which perspective we assess it, it still boils down to the fact that there isn't a clear-cut resolution for it. We've covered many issues that surround the idea of Designer Babies, be it the different motivations for parents' choice, moral values that the idea goes aginst and who and how it would affect.

There are millions of people in the world, without thousands of different notions to the topic, it is IMPOSSIBLE to come up with a solution that pleases everyone. If we cannot even put a finger on which moral values are proper, there is no way we can solve a complex problem like this.

But this blog is about OUR opinions, expressed with OUR words and made
known with OUR voices and thus the conclusion that we came up with is purely how
we perceived the situation to be.

Thus we feel that the best policy that should be implemented should Designer Babies be made accepted legally across the globe, is to ban any enhacements in terms of aesthetics, academics, atheletics. This however is subjective because there are mnay other citerias which we have not covered intensively.

DYLLIS, LIWEN, IRENE, JINGQING
signing off!

hope you had enjoyed our last post :D

If parents were to choose exactly how they want their child to look like, their intellectual capabilities and even their personality type, wouldn't everyone choose to have a perfect child with a high IQ, and many other desirable qualities?

In this way, every child will be perfect, getting perfect scores in all their examinations and being drop dead gorgeous. If this is the case, everyone would be the same, and the sense of identity will be lost, and the and this would be unfair to those parents who do not get a chance to make their own designer babies, as the children they have will be just like any other normal child, who has to strive hard to be able to succeed in life, unlike the designer babies, who have already been born with an edge over others.


Where would designer babies get their identity if everyone would to look the same?

Those children will feel inferior to the designer babies, as no matter how hard they try, it will be almost impossible for them to out do the all perfect designer babies. Not only will they feel inferior, they will never be given a chance to perform, or even to showcase their ablilities and have a chance to get the better opportunities in life. Take for example, your company has only one vacancy left for a job. If an all-rounded person and a person with certain flaws were to apply for the post, who would you give the job to? If you were to take the company's benefits in mind, you would definately choose the perfect person, of course.

In conclusion, I think that, of designer babies are ever allowed to be created, the opportunity should be given only to those people whose children are known to be at risk of certain hereditary diseases, and not for aesthetic enhancements.

Signing off,
Jing Qing

In the science dominated society that we live in now, the importance of religion has deteriorated steadily. But does it mean that it's not important anymore? That is the question that we will be dealing with. Imagine if you had the choice to have the child you have always wanted. Good in various instruments, a voice that is pleasing to the ear, and desirable features. Does it sound like a dream come true? But if that dream really comes true, children by then will not be treated as unique individuals, but serve only as gifts to suit their parent's preference.

Designer babies come in many shapes and sizes, each brought about for wholly different purposes. Most of the reasons currently is due to save another person's life, be it creating a baby that has the right cells or a matching kidney. However, it seems that humans are now getting more presumptuous by playing God. Take the sex of the baby for example. By natural reproduction, parents could not choose their infant's sex and thus embrace their child for who they truly are. But by being able to choose a new life's sex at will, it is evident that humans are getting above themselves by attempting to control the way of nature at such a big level.

Roman Catholicism and Christianity are one of the many religions in which the start of a human life is a touchy subject. Is it considered a human life the moment the sperm fertilises the egg? Or is it when the heart starts beating? Either way, both religions object against designer babies as it goes against their moral values. In the process of experimenting and extracting the "best" genes from embryos, we are looking at lives as though they are nothing but experimental subjects. Even if the ideal babies succeed in being "born", it clashes with the beliefs of most religions. Take this phrase from the bible for example.

‘God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul’ Genesis 2:7

In other words, children are gifts from God to humans and not commodities for fulfilling our own selfish desires.

Another sensitive topic would be the babies' and our humanity. Take cloning for example. The concept of a designer baby is to have your "ideal" child. So why would cloning be out of the question? This brings about serious debates on moral values as doctors can easily clone another person, even from one who is already dead. It is not exactly it, but quite close to bringing the person back from the dead, even if only in appearance. This behaviour is outrageous and defies the law of nature. The problems that come with cloning are not only that, but also the issue of humanity. In religious values, every human has a soul granted to them by God. By creating lives at our own whim, do the babies created have souls? Are they considered human beings or are just monsters with human form? These are one of the many ethical issues that has been raised over designer babies.

One way to prevent many people from resorting to designer babies is to educate parents. The religious groups can come together and teach parents that letting the baby be who it is is the best gift to oneself. By imparting the "correct" morals, hopefully the desire for a perfect baby can be quenched, even for a bit. However it is a sensitive subject as different religious groups might have a different view on designer babies, and thus there might be even more debates and heated controversies in the future.

HELLO EVERYONE, THIS IS LIWEN HERE!

If you have read dyllis's post introducing DESIGNER BABIES, then I'm sure you would know that designer babies are defined as

"a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic
engineering combined with in-vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or
absence of particular genes or characteristics"

And that basically means having to choose the physical and mental attributes that your would-be baby would have.

But how different is it from making teddy bear at Build-a-Bear Workshop?
Eventually designer babies would grow up to look like the so-called "customised " teddy bears - all the same.



But that's beside my point.
How did the idea designer babies suddenly come about? Why do people want to create them?
WHY DESINGER BABIES??

Well, allow me to enrich your understanding towards designer babies with a bit of history info snippet.

Back in the 1940s, Adolf Hitler (a notorious 20th century evil man) had wanted to created a perfect Aryan race - a race that consist of the flawless human beings. He planned to achieve this by singling out all those he deemed as "undesirables", the Jews, the handicapped, socially inept citizens who he felt had no place his ideal world, and killed them all!

Yeah yeah, of course now with our advanced technology, we don't have to commit such brutal and vicious acts to produce a race of flawless human beings. (Well, not currently, but we're close!) However, our motivation to modify a human being is very much different from that of Hitler's, not saying that all of them are acceptable and justified reasons.

Returning to the most important question: why designer babies?

1. Ensure that hereditary illnesses are not passed down to younger generations.

Some parents have been spent their life battling diseases that have been passed down from THEIR parents. Examples of such diseases are cancer, Parkinson's disease, heart disease and diabetes. All parents would want the best for their kids, and if they had a choice, they would choose not to let their children suffer from illness caused by the defective genes they have passed down. And now, with the concept of DESIGNER BABIES, they do have a choice!

My take on this reason: It's defnitely an acceptable reason, because these parents just want their children to lead a normal life without the burden of such sufferings, so why not? Some may argue that eliminating all possible genetically transitted disease is not a good solution because there are people in this world "meant to suffer". But I defnitely think that parents have the rights to want the best for their child.

2. To save another life.

Hello, this is Dyllis starting off the new blog with the first post! As you might already know, this blog is about our views on Designer Babies. I would first answer the question that must be on everyone's mind: What are designer babies?

According to Wikipedia, a designer baby refers to a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in-vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics. Many fear, that in the near future, genetic technologies will make it possible for modification of embryos, allowing desirable or cosmetic characteristics to be chosen.

Under moral and religious grounds, many groups strongly oppose on the termination of embryos while it is defensible as procreative beneficence. The usage of reprogenetics might in the future allow curing of genetic diseases present in the embryos which has presently been successfully carried out in animals and still lawed as illegal in humans. Such genetic modification can alter anything, even personality, appearance and IQ.

As of now, only two types of advanced reproductive technologies are legally allowed to be carried out on humans. The first involves choosing of the sperm that will fertilize the egg, which will also determine the gender and set of genes of the embryo. The second would be to screen fertilized embryos for genetic diseases and terminating those infected while implanting healthy ones into the mother’s womb.

Are designer babies really for preventing diseases or for enhancing attributes? It is very difficult to draw the line between prevention and enhancing, people may not agree on what is ethical and what is not. ‘It is hard to find definitions of disease suitable to serve as a moral guideline for genetic technologies.’ It is also not right to prevent a disease by preventing the existence of a being. Genetically modifying an embryo by removing the gene responsible for a higher risk of the disease can very well prevent the disease but it need not prevent the existence of a patient who already suffers from it.

We believe that the usage of reprogenetics should not be legalized solely for the use of meeting the parents' expectations of a perfect child. Even when eventually, the procedure is said to be completely safe and reliable, the same techniques should not be based on improving nature, creating the perfect child, rather we feel that it should be applied in the service of disease prevention. Genetically engineering babies would also compel us to see them not as living beings with rights of their own but rather a product of some sort, something that parents can choose and customize. We feel that this is not at all ethical and if allowed, will soon cause disputes between those who are genetically modified and those who are not. It will also lead to more discrimination, in the social context.

Therefore, we believe that it should not be legalized even in the future where it may be perfected.

Dyllis :)