717840
Playing at God - the designer baby
- Attempts to determine the genetic make-up of individuals
have a contentious history. Francis Galton in the late 19th
century believed it would be possible to encourage
parents with 'good' characteristics to have more children,
and pass on their characteristics to future generations,
founding the eugenics movement.
- Hitler, in Nazi Germany, wanted to create a master race
and encouraged men and women of favoured physical
types to produce children. In more recent times, sperm
banks for the use of mother who wished to have children
with fathers who were highly intelligent or in some way
exceptional are readily available.
- The movement has generally been unsuccessful
in achieving notional genetic improvement of the
population, not least because of the
phenomenon of regression. Randomly choosing
sperm or eggs of parents who are exceptional is
only likely to produce children who
characteristics are between those of the parents
and the mean for the population.
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- The movement has generally been unsuccessful
in achieving notional genetic improvement of the
population, not least because of the
phenomenon of regression. Randomly choosing
sperm or eggs of parents who are exceptional is
only likely to produce children who
characteristics are between those of the parents
and the mean for the population.
- Hitler, in Nazi Germany, wanted to create a master race
and encouraged men and women of favoured physical
types to produce children. In more recent times, sperm
banks for the use of mother who wished to have children
with fathers who were highly intelligent or in some way
exceptional are readily available.
- 'Designer babies' are those whose
genes have been preselected in
some way, in other words, not in the
chance way in which genes come
together in the normal reproductive
process. However, no baby's genes
are entirely randomly selected from
the population at large.
- The genes can only be a combination of those
available from the sperm and egg of the parents and,
to that extent, they have been selected since the
parents selected each other to bear their children.
Because the word 'design' is used, we are presuming
that someone is making informed choices about the
genetic make-up of the baby, and we might ask 'who'
and 'why?'
- There are many reasons why
parents may wish to determine
their children's genotypes: desire
to have children who are brighter;
desire to have children who are
sportier; desire to have children
who look beautiful; desire to have
children of a particular sex; where
there is a risk of an inherited
disease; where a baby may have
potential 'helping' others.
- The genes can only be a combination of those
available from the sperm and egg of the parents and,
to that extent, they have been selected since the
parents selected each other to bear their children.
Because the word 'design' is used, we are presuming
that someone is making informed choices about the
genetic make-up of the baby, and we might ask 'who'
and 'why?'
- One objection to this research
is the belief that it is wrong to
change or interfere with a
natural event. The objection
could be religious, if based on
the belief that only a deity
should have the power to
select the features of a child
and that God alone exercises
the ability to 'design' the baby.
- The objection could be
precautionary - since you
cannot know all the
consequences of the
process of generating a
particular genotype, you
cannot be sure that the
outcomes will all be good, so
it is better not to try.
- The objection could be
precautionary - since you
cannot know all the
consequences of the
process of generating a
particular genotype, you
cannot be sure that the
outcomes will all be good, so
it is better not to try.
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