Argumentative Essay On Designer Babies

Designer babies are genetically engineered babies. According to the dictionary, it is “a baby developing from an embryo created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and selected because it had or lacked particular genes, the genetic make-up often having been modified by genetically engineering.” (Designer baby, n.d.). IVF is the process whereby an egg is being fertilised outside the body by a sperm cell. The choosing of embryos brings to the cutting edge a large moral issue with designer babies. Many embryos get created but not all of them get implanted into the mother. Embryos that do not fit the specifications set by the parents will get thrown away and this aspect was viewed as a huge problem to those who are pro-life. There is also a huge argument
This means that not everyone will be able to afford to design their baby and this involvement of money will lead to the creation a new class system to discriminate the natural babies from the genetically engineered ones. It will also lead to a stratified society where only the rich get to savour the benefits of such genetic enhancements. The genetically engineered babies will be classified under the “superior race” whereas the natural babies will be cast aside as the “inferior race” (Gates, 2010). Such classification is similar to the Nazis where they classified the Aryans as the superior race and eliminate the Jews just because they do not have the superior traits like the Aryans. The creation of a superior race will lead to them dominating the world as they are deemed as the most intelligent and capable ones due to their “superior” genes. This will lead to social disharmony and create more problems to the society in the future. At the same time, it can be argued that the creation of a superior race is for the future, where smarter people can help to find a cure for cancer, HIV and other incurable diseases at this point of time. However, how sure can we be that these intelligent people will be able to find a cure for all the incurable diseases to date and how sure can we be that they will be able to solve all the problems that we are facing now? There is no guarantee that these babies will be the saviours
There is no list of criteria to define what is called a perfect baby. It may be perfect to one’s eyes but may not in other’s eyes. What is considered a flaw in someone’s eyes may not be considered as a flaw in another’s eyes. What if one day, the traits that were deemed perfect at that point of time are no longer perfect anymore after a few years? Are the parents going to abandon their once ‘perfect’ baby? It is unethical and unjustifiable to engineer a baby genetically just for the aesthetical side but for health reasons, it is still debatable. But, as a whole, the need to genetically engineer a baby is still not