Babies by Dolce and Gabbana

About IVF and PGD

Wouldn't it be nice for a baby to have perfect teeth, hair, nose, and eyes. Well now with advanced genetic screening and In Vitro Fertilization it is now possible to have the perfect baby with no health complications and you can even choose hair and eye color. Even though the option is there to design your own baby, many do not choose this path because it is unethical and unnatural.

These 'test tube' or 'designer' babies are created by using Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and In Vitro fertilization. PGD (pre implantation genetic diagnosis) is done before In Vitro fertilization. The fertile egg is extracted from the mother and is examined to determine whether the egg is healthy or not. In the worst of cases the eggs that are defective or have serious disorders are replaced, but usually the defective gene is isolated and removed.

If the syndrome is sex linked, e.g., hemophilia then the egg is replaced with a female egg. This is to make sure that the baby does not develop any serious health complications. Not only is the female egg examined, the sperm also as to go through the same inspection process as the egg. If there are any 'bad' sperm, it gets isolated to avoid any contamination to the 'perfect' egg.

Once the egg and sperm have been thoroughly examined and checked for any possible problems, the egg will then be fertilized. The egg and sperm are left to fertilize for 4-5 days, it is then when the egg has turned into an embryo. After the waiting period the newly fertilized egg (embryo) gets re-implanted back into the mother, from then the embryo is carried in mother until full term.

Are designer babies unethical?

Genetic selection and In Vitro is only ethical for those who really want children but can't conceive naturally, also it is for people who carry recessive genes that cause deforming and life threatening diseases. IVF and PGD is life saving when it is used to prevent 'defective babies', yet there is a fine line between acceptable and unethical. For those who are using IVF and PGD to 'modify' the looks of their baby, it is extremely unethical. Yet, today IVF and PGD are becoming increasingly more popular because of its uses.

However, unless there is a legitimate reason for using IVG and PGD, I still believe that babies should represent the parents who created him/her. If the babies are designed by their parents, there won't be any surprises when the baby is born. The parents will know the eye colour, the sex, and the physical features of the baby. Before these 'designer babies' existed, parents looked forward to seeing their children for the first time. Now with designer babies, there isn't a surprise of whether the baby is girl or a boy. For some that is a good thing, but to me its unethical. Unless there is a legitimate reason such as genetic defects, IVF and PGD is unethical and shouldn't be used.

Sources:

"Fighting for in Vitro Fertilization in Canada." CBC Archives. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

By, Park/New York, and Thompson/Washington. "Designer Babies - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Web. 26 Nov. 2010. .

"Ivf-infertility.com | Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)." Ivf-infertility.com | Infertility, IVF and More. Web. 26 Nov. 2010.

Images:

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