‘Designer Babies’ is a colloquial term pertaining to a child whose genome has been deliberately selected via reproductive and genetic technologies to achieve an optimal recombination of parent’s genetic material (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/designer_babies). Reprogenetics consists of harvesting a large amount of embryos from females and reinserting them into host mothers in the name of parents choosing the genetic characteristics of their own children. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reprogenetics). The scientific and social repercussions amount to dramatic social change, both beneficial and potentially hazardous. This procedure could increase the divide between the financial ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ creating the genetic ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ Benefits include the possible eradication of genetically transferred disease and potentially higher IQs. (Silver, Lee M. , Remaking Eden, 1997).
Amid debate in various scientific circles regarding the ethics of such technological advancement, a plethora of notions arise. Some believe Participant Evolution (redesigning the human body with technology as opposed to natural selection or mutation) is “the earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/participant_evolution; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/transhuman; Fereiodoun M Esfandiary a.k.a FM-2030). Such elucidation begs the question: have humans reached an evolutionary endpoint, or, as Jeffrey McKee of the Ohio State University believes, does evolution speed up as a population grows? McKee reasons that a greater population means more opportunity for new mutations, which will occupy more environmental niches and subsequently drive evolution in new directions. While the concept of ‘designer babies’ remains on ethically shaky ground, apparently the demand is due to morally sturdy reasons. “Our research has discovered that although the media portrays a desire for ‘designer babies’, this does not appear to be true among consumers of genetic testing services,” (Feighanne Hathaway, NYU Cancer Institute).
More information can be found at:
• http://ieet.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/participant_evolution
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/transhuman
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reprogenetics
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/designer_babies
Hayley Tillard 41821301
