Designer babies 

           What if you could design your own child? Chose its gender, skin tone, height, as well as its hair and eye color. If you could, would you? This is a frequently asked question when it comes to the idea, soon to be reality, of designer babies. This technology was first sought out to find a way to eliminate genetic diseases and disabilities, but can now include your own personal desires on how you want your child to look and function. “But, by designing babies, we are, in essence, designing an entire society as well as our descendants and, in essence, our own evolution. Would these children still be an accurate reflection of us or the offspring of the marriage of science and design?” (– Canberra.edu.au)

             As was mentioned before designer babies could greatly impact our world for the better. This technology could eradicate many diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, diabetes, color blindness, and various forms of cancer. By canceling out the illnesses that have a high death rate life expectancy would increase. “Not only would changes like this help the physical and mental well-being of the population, there are speculated benefits for the health care system as well. If the majority of genetic diseases could be phased out, that would result in less people requiring treatment for their illnesses. Medical staff could be more available to help with the ever increasing burden that they are facing due to the growing ageing population and less money would be required from taxpayers for those particular services.” (– Canberra.edu.au)

          Other advantages to choosing the child’s skill set would be a dramatic increase in that regions culture, and it can also benefit that areas athletic strength for competitions and it’s arts and musical talent. This could also be an unfair disadvantage, as a form of cheating when they are competing against a non-genetically modified person. Some however are in favor of the idea of prenatal autonomy, this give them the right to decide the fate of their children. Aditionally, those in favor with this idea have expressed that there is already a way of controlling the outcome of your children through environmental choices. For example if The parents are motivated on having their child be an athlete, they might sign them up to play soccer or basketball, they might even take them to professional games regularly. these decisions effect how the child develops and are very similar to selecting specific genes that affect how the child will mature in ways that are desired by the parents.