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| Steps to create a healthy baby through PGD |
The term 'designer baby' is given to babies that are genetically modified through a process called Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). During this process, a three day old embryo (containing around six cells) is tested for genetic diseases. When the embryo is declared healthy, it gets implanted in the mother’s womb. The embryo was created through a process called In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). In this method, the egg and sperm are fertilized outside the body instead of inside the mother’s womb. This method was originally used to prevent hereditary diseases such as blindness.
For example, Chris and Tanya Kirby wanted to have children. However, they were worried that the child would inherit a heart disease that Chris had. They decided to turn to artificial insemination to ensure that their future children were healthy (see right). Due to their choice they successfully welcomed healthy twins to their family.
As the treatment became more popular, future parents were seeking for a way to alter the physical appearance of their offspring (see steps below). Others may want to create a ‘saviour baby’ – a child designed to with healthy and compatible cells to save an older sibling from an illness. In these situations, they use a small chip coated with DNA called a microarray. The chip allows one to analyze single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to predict different traits of the baby such as hair and eye colour.
![[designer baby]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uPS8lSSBzWjUpjHDi7SKe6HXC6yJSo02jKrZd-3o1HM0jWwNJif-RzeUJ-QDKovw2ixxlQcBQc-Ww9M8VBxGZwogK4eNOvOUVFkVpuWvrhoy4IGto5i8QjiZ3UyNIjHRv6aTxE3qrwoa3uPDAHM18g07A=s0-d) |
| Steps of In Vitro Fertilization to alter physical appearance of baby |
Because it uses relatively new technology, it is quite expensive. The Kirbys had to pay almost thirty thousand dollars to ensure that their child is healthy. The treatment is not always successful either; Canada’s average success rate is about 20%. Women under 40 have a greater (one in four) chance than older women (one in ten) for success. These, unfortunately, are not the only consequences that the parents have to pay. Once their child finds out about it, who knows how they would react.
This idea may seem very appealing at first, but problems regarding ethical issues arise.
Most parents would want their child to be born healthy. I don’t think that there is anything ethically wrong about using this technology to ensure that. However, I think it is taking a step too far to use this technology to change a baby’s feature or to create a baby to heal another child. I don't think parental love would be affected by the physical appearance or the health of the child - they would (at least they should) love their child no matter what. Developing a child to heal another child is basically using them as a tool. The baby is a human being. We are too. Sometimes, we become too greedy in striving for the better when things are fine they way they were. On this issue, I believe that it’s better to not let science interfere with nature’s way.
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