Designer Babies essays

Designer Babies essays The term Designer Baby is not a scientific term, it is a term created by the media to describe conception techniques other than traditional. The techniques used give parents more control over what their babies will be like. These techniques have been available due to advances in these three fields: Advanced Reproductive Technology: Since the first test tube baby was created more than twenty years ago, there have been hundreds of thousands of babies created using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Other advanced reproductive technologies include egg and sperm banks, frozen embryos and surrogate motherhood. Cell and Chromosome Manipulation: During the previous ten years there have been huge advances in our knowledge of our cell structure. Our ability to transplant DNA has led to major developments in cloning. Our research into stem cells has made cures to life threatening disease within arms reach. If we can learn more about early cell development, then we can gain more control over a babys development. Genetics and Genomics: We are just beginning to understand how DNA affects humans during development. Being able to find one small genetic defect in a genome has been liked to trying to find a certain person whilst looking at a map of the universe. However, even if we make one small change in our genetic structure, it could have huge consequences. Research is heading towards the ability to disregard some parts of our DNA or replace certain sections of it. Kantian View With Kantian ethics, an action has to be performed out of a sense of duty, not for personal gain or pleasure. According to Kantian people, this is the only motive for a moral action. This means emotion (not even feeling sorry for someone) plays a part in deciding what a moral action is. Kantians would not agree with IVF technology or the designer baby idea because there is no dut ...