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English 102
Professor Newport
May 8, 2017
All the time people imagine what their kids might look like, or why the kid ended up
looking like they did. Or even thinking about what they wish they could change about their kid,
for medical reasons or even to be better at sports. All of those thoughts are on peoples minds all
the time, but not talked about often enough. Especially with the scientific rise of genetic
modification on unborn babies. Genetic modification of unborn babies is a topic that is becoming
very popular. It is the ability to go into the genes of an unborn baby and alter characteristics of
the fetus. This can help prevent genetic diseases, but it can also help you to design your baby.
This brings up the idea of the Frankenstein Effect. That is the situation where although we have
help prevent and remove diseases from the world that currently do
not have any other fix, because this will help to save the lives of
many children and help us to create better lives for children who
Designer Baby means that the childs genetic build was carefully and specifically selected
resulting in the ability to pick and choose genes. This would allow parents to go in and
specifically select what their children will look like. Designer baby is the idea that a woman with
brown eyes and brown hair has a child with brown eyes and brown hair. Now, since she wants
her baby to fit her personal definition of perfect, she could go and get her childs genes altered
to result in her child coming out with blue eyes and blonde
The term designer baby fits this idea perfectly, since people
would literally go and pick the exact traits they want. The idea
race and Hitler ideas, which is why most people do not accept
A lot of people say that designer babies are not at all similar to Hitlers ideas. They argue
that we should be designing our own babies. Bill Muehlenberg comments about this, While
most people today shy away from any similar ideals or goals, the new biomedical technologies,
coupled with secularist hubris and the desire to play God have resulted in newer, but equally
sinister calls for a superior race (Muehlenberg). He is explaining how the ideals of Hitler do
coincide with what is going on behind the idea of designer babies. These calls to create a
superior race take over the ideas that everyone can be different. This results in a powerful lean
towards similar ideas to Hitler. That is why people need to understand that we should not use this
designer baby sense. I believe that we should only be using this technology to save the childrens
lives, not to give them blue eyes. By picking and choosing what genes you want your child to
have, you are taking away from the natural way of life. When believing in the idea of designer
babies, you are fully being influenced by societys idea of the perfect person. Society has a huge
impact on what people think of themselves. Nora Turriago of Huffington Post states, The
celebrity serves as both an object of worship and of disgust, simultaneously representing what
we strive to be and yet what we dislike most about ourselves and, by extension,
society. (Turriago). She is describing how humans are completely controlled by what is shown
in society. People would want their children to look like whatever they have been seeing on TV
or on social media. The traits people would be picking would all be the same, all based off of one
common view in society. People should want to display their differences and what makes
look different. The master race would be exactly the same, always
striving to stay with what they see in society. You should want to
see yourself and your partner in your child everyday and tell the
Another reason we should not be able to use eugenics to design our babies is because it
would result in a master race. A master race is the idea that one race will have better abilities in
life and slowly over time take over due to natural selection. This is the idea Hitler was working
towards, except he did not wait over time, he mass killed people to create the natural selection. If
we allowed people to pay and change their childs genes for aesthetic reasons, the rich would be
able to design their children, while the poor would not be able to. This group of children that are
genetically modified would, over time, take over and produce more and more children, all
starting to look the same, while the poor would die off, not having the perfect traits to fit in with
society. The idea of a master race is still prominent in society. This magazine from England
states, The only way of cutting off the constant stream of idiots and imbeciles and feeble-
minded persons who help to fill our prisons and workhouses, reformatories, and asylums is to
prevent those who are known to be mentally defective from producing offspring (Heyes). This
is a powerful statement that was shared with people all over. They are promoting the idea of a
master race. Although it is a less severe way, it still shows the strength of people who want a
master race. The use of genetic modification to design babies, ultimately creating a master race,
is a terrifying idea. That is why I believe that the ability to genetically modify an unborn childs
genes should only be used to save lives, not for parents to design what they want their child to
look like.
Some people believe that we should use this technology to pick and choose the genes
they want their child to have. People argue this due to a wide array of reasons. One reason people
give is the idea that if you are raped, you don't want the child to look like your rapist. A lot of
people relate that opinion to situation of abortion when someone is raped. Many people say that
the victim should not have to have a child that reminds them of that awful time. I believe that the
child deserves to know who the father is, and have a connection to them. Even if they are not the
best father, that is a part of them and they will recover from the tragedy, with a child that looks
genes of the parents choosing is because of athletic and academic reasons. This is similar to the
reasons behind why some parents put their children into school a year later than they are
supposed to. They want their child to be better than the other kids. They do this in academic
Parents are using the age they put their child in school to control the childs ability, similar to
controlling their genes. Some people think that if they could control their childrens genes, they
could just give them genes to help them academically and athletically. They can give them the
best for what they want their child to have, to make them competitive with everyone. This is a
terrible idea. It would create a whole new level of competition and create a master race of super
powered kids. We should not be using this technology to create designer babies.
Another reason we should not be designer our babies is due to the many aspects of
religious issues. Many people believe that the idea of designing aspects about our babies will
result in parents playing the role of God. Religion plays a huge role in cultures everywhere. In
many regions, people are created to be who they are by a god. This technology goes against a lot
of beliefs of people. By encouraging this technology, we are going against a large amount of
people. One statement made about this is, DNA has come to function in effect as an inviolable
sacred, a special province of the divine, that should be off limits to human tampering (Peters).
This explains how the idea of our DNA is something created by God and should not be altered in
any way. Genetic modification to design our babies goes completely against that.
People argue that if we are not allowed to play God by picking and choosing our traits,
we should not be using this technology to prevent genetic diseases. They argue that even by
saving lives, you are going against Gods already perfect creation. The reason they are wrong is
because the goal of most religions is to serve your people. This is why people go on mission trips
and are encourage to help everyone, you are supposed to put others lives first. By saving these
peoples lives through this technology, people would be able to live longer and serve their god to
Although we should not be using this technology to design our babies, we should be
using it for medical reasons. I believe that one of the best reasons to support genetic modification
is because it can cure genetic diseases before the baby is even born. This will allow parents to
way too high. Genetic modification technology is able to fix all of these plus many more. So
many people may have a wide range of diseases, but with this technology, they all can be
prevented. I believe that the use of this technology will allow us to save so many lives, and will
Many people are worried that the risk of using this for medical reasons is too high. They
are worried that people will die and it will cause more problems than it will fix. These people are
insanely wrong. Lauren F Friedman wrote a strong article about how this technology can help
save lives where she states, the potential to use these same technologies to cure intractable
diseases is huge (Friedman). She knows that even through all of the risks, even the slimmest
chance to save so many lives and cure these diseases, it will all be worth it. We have to work
The use of this technology to save lives is very similar to Frankenstein. Genetic
modification would be used to prevent diseases to ultimately save lives. In Frankenstein, they use
the technology to bring someone back to life and create lives. They are also similar through the
idea that in both, there is the strong issue of even though we have this technology, should we be
using it. Genetic modification and eugenics are powerful science topics and are highly
controversial. There were many mixed opinions of Frankensteins ideas in the book. The idea
about not knowing whether to use the technology we have or not is a very important idea in
Some people believe that we should not be using this technology to save lives. They
believe that this ability is like the ability to design their children. They believe that saving lives
would lead to a master race. They think that only some people would be able to afford it. This
would result in only the upper class being able to remove the bad genes. Over a period of time
this would lead to a master race forming due to natural selection thats only semi-natural at that
point. What these people have not researched is how scientists and doctors are trying to make
this medical advancement available to everyone, so they can permanently remove genetic
diseases. Doctors and scientists are primarily leaning towards having this completely available to
everyone in order to help eliminate problems and save so many lives in the long run.
the bad genes. They believe that people in the world are
behind, we can see the good that can come out of our relationships with them (Slick). This
shows how they believe that the person in their life, only made their life better. The people who
think that, do not think about what the people would want who have the genetic disease. The
people are against it, are against giving everyone and equal chance at a long and healthy life. No
one should have to live life in pain. Everyone should have an equal chance at a happy life. This
can only be done through genetic modification. The technology for it is there, but people are still
The next reason this technology should be used is because it will slowly and completely
knock out all genetic diseases. When doctors genetically modify an unborn child, those edited
genes will be passed on to their children. The good genes will slowly continue to be passed on
until everything has been fixed. This is a basic explanation of how this is done by NHS is, Each
cell in the body contains 23 pairs of chromosomes. One chromosome from each pair is inherited
from your mother and one is inherited from your father (NHS). This is a very basic start to how
it works, the characteristics about people do not just appear out of thin air. Everything about who
you are comes from your mother or your father. Everyone gets one from each parent which goes
into who you are. So when a parent has something bad, there is always a chance it will get
passed down to the child, and then to their child, and so on. As awful as that is, genetic
modification is the fix. When the child has the genetic diseases fixed, that person will not have
the problem available to be passed on to the next kid. This technology takes out this issues and
Some people say that we should not be wasting our time and money on genetic diseases
and we should be putting our money and focus on other problems. A lot of people say that
spending money on wiping out genetic problems, is not of the highest importance. There are
many people that say money should be put on the much more important things like cures for
cancer. In a way, they are contradicting theirselves. One thing this technology can do, is
eliminate the genes that make people have a higher likeliness of getting cancer. So by putting this
technology to use, we are saving so many lives while scientist can still be looking for a cure for
other problems. We should be putting this technology to use for medical problems.
Some people also argue that the alterations made to the genes would not be passed down
to the next child. Although this is partly correct, almost all of the alterations will get passed
down. They are very few that do not, due to other reasons. All altered genes will be passed down
successfully to the next children, but may still receive a bad gene through the other parent. There
is no way to ensure the removal of these bad genes without everyone doing it, then slowly these
genetic diseases will go away. It will take a large amount of time, but the diseases will go away
after a while.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we need to implement this technology to genetically modify into our lives
in medical ways, but not to design babies. I believe that we should be focusing on saving lives
rather than arguing whether or not saving lives is a good thing. Everyone should be encouraging
the advancement of genetic modification and discouraging the idea of designer babies. As long
as it has support, doctors and scientists can continue working on it so we will be able to save so
many lives. Stephen Hawking once said this in an interview, With genetic engineering, we will
be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a
slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the
genetic code. By saving this he is showing his support for genetic modification. Even though
Genetic modification is a fairly new science that should be used to prevent diseases but
not be used to design our babies. We should be using it for medical reasons because it has the
ability to save so many lives, make so many lives better, and it will slowly remove genetic
diseases from the Earth over time. We should not be using it for designer babies since it will
create a master race and it will be like we are playing god. Genetic modification is more life
changing than the idea of Dr. Frankenstein bringing someone back from the dead, and genetic
Friedman, Lauren F. "5 Terrible Illnesses That Genetic Engineering Could Eliminate Forever."
http://www.businessinsider.com/genetic-engineering-an-hiv-cure-and-other-diseases
Gonzalez, Jennifer. "Kindergarten Redshirting: How Kids Feel About It Later in Life." Cult of
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/academic-redshirting/
Heyes, J.D. "Genetic Engineering Technology Now Spearheading the Return of Eugenics and the
Push for a 'master' Superior Race of Men." NaturalNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.
http://www.naturalnews.com/
053819_genetic_engineering_eugenics_superior_master_race.html
Muehlenberg, Bill. "Let's Create a Master Race Again." CultureWatch. N.p., 02 July 2012.
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/13/lets-create-a-master-race--again/
NHS "Genetics - Genetic Inheritance." NHS Choices. NHS, n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Genetics/Pages/Facts.aspx
Peters, Ted, Dr. "Are We Asking Our Scientists to Play God?" Genetics Topic: Are We Asking
http://www.counterbalance.org/genetics/play-body.html
Slick, Matt. "Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry." CARM. N.p., 10 Nov. 2014. Web. 08
May 2017.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Genetics/Pages/Facts.aspx
Turriago, Nora. "The Dangerous American Obsession: Why Are We So Fascinated With Fame?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-turriago/the-dangerous-american-ob_b_8721632.html
Photographs
1) https://designerbabiesethics.wordpress.com
2) https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2017/03/23/expect-era-genetically-modified-designer-
babies/
3) https://www.infowars.com/genetically-modified-babies-already-born-how-will-they-alter-
human-species/
4) http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21661651-new-technique-manipulating-genes-holds-
great-promisebut-rules-are-needed-govern-its
5) http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/designer-baby-fears-after-
genetic-7288242
6) http://aj-travel.co.uk/blog/aj-travel-helping-the-disabled-be-more-active/