What is a Designer Baby?
The Oxford Dictionary defines "designer baby" as "a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to ensure that a particular gene is absent or present.
Our looks and personalities all come from different genes we inherit from our parents in the form of DNA and chromosomes. Everyone's DNA involves different combinations of "bases" and these combinations have a large affect on the person we become. The creation of designer babies involves manipulating this DNA.
Designer babies are created using a process known as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) that takes place as part of In Vitro Fertilization. In Vitro Fertilization is when the egg is fertilized by scientists in a lab rather than in a woman's uterus. During PGD, a geneticist analyzes cells taken from a three day old fetus and is able to tell possible traits in the child they would create. This way parents can choose a combination that would avoid genetic diseases or disorder.
As science advances, however, these geneticists can tell much more than medical information. PGD is used to determine hair color, eye color, or even some personality traits such as potential athletic ability and intelligence. In this way, parents could then choose the fetus with the most desirable traits to be implanted in the mother.
Newer processes take this even further. Processes called germ-line therapies actually allow scientists to replace the faulty sections of DNA with healthy sections of DNA. Other processes, often referred to as inheritable genetic modification, allow scientists to actually modify genes in the egg, sperm, or even an early embryo. This modification is then passed on to future generations, instead of affecting only one generation of a family.
Though germ-line therapies and inheritable genetic modification is mostly still in the research phase, the time could be coming when they are easily available to parents. Though they could go a long way towards helping to cure genetic disorders, it is not ethical for these processes to be used for cosmetic reasons.
One company, 23andme, has been granted a patent by the US government on technology that would allow them to provide prospective mothers with sperm donors who would create a child with traits of their choosing. This is another form of designer babies. The following video explains the technology the 23andme has patented.
Our looks and personalities all come from different genes we inherit from our parents in the form of DNA and chromosomes. Everyone's DNA involves different combinations of "bases" and these combinations have a large affect on the person we become. The creation of designer babies involves manipulating this DNA.
Designer babies are created using a process known as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) that takes place as part of In Vitro Fertilization. In Vitro Fertilization is when the egg is fertilized by scientists in a lab rather than in a woman's uterus. During PGD, a geneticist analyzes cells taken from a three day old fetus and is able to tell possible traits in the child they would create. This way parents can choose a combination that would avoid genetic diseases or disorder.
As science advances, however, these geneticists can tell much more than medical information. PGD is used to determine hair color, eye color, or even some personality traits such as potential athletic ability and intelligence. In this way, parents could then choose the fetus with the most desirable traits to be implanted in the mother.
Newer processes take this even further. Processes called germ-line therapies actually allow scientists to replace the faulty sections of DNA with healthy sections of DNA. Other processes, often referred to as inheritable genetic modification, allow scientists to actually modify genes in the egg, sperm, or even an early embryo. This modification is then passed on to future generations, instead of affecting only one generation of a family.
Though germ-line therapies and inheritable genetic modification is mostly still in the research phase, the time could be coming when they are easily available to parents. Though they could go a long way towards helping to cure genetic disorders, it is not ethical for these processes to be used for cosmetic reasons.
One company, 23andme, has been granted a patent by the US government on technology that would allow them to provide prospective mothers with sperm donors who would create a child with traits of their choosing. This is another form of designer babies. The following video explains the technology the 23andme has patented.