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
