Once where doctors were not permitted to identify the gender of a baby is now not the case. Parents can now know the gender of a human embryo. This is causing population differences when it comes to gender in countries such as India and China. The ratio of males is higher than females in these countries because parents are choosing to abort the foetus when they find out it is female.
Genetic engineering is also being used to create babies from generative diseases.
Such as the couple in America who wanted a baby free from the genetic disease Tay sachs. It is acceptable that the couple wanted a healthy baby but the process of creating the baby was medically unethical. To create a baby free from the disease scientists had to discard the egg, which was identified as carrying the disease. The problem with this is it is unethical killing a fetilised egg because this is the stage where life begins even though it is not a fully developed foetus.
It was recently reported how a white couple and a black couple went through IVF treatment to conceive. However there was a mix up because the sperm from the black father was mistakenly used to fertilise eggs from the white mother. The mistake was only realised once the babies were born after the clinic involved carried out genetic tests on the black father. Investigation into this case found that “an average of two embryo mix ups happen at clinics each year”. Although the babies were “loved from the moment
of their birth” this raises the question of what if the two couples involved did not want the babies? This just proves how just because we have technology to create a baby it is not morally acceptable to interfere with nature.
There is the fear of genetic engineering being misused for political purposes. The
profit at present of US biotechnology is worth S 80 billion a year. This is one of the major factors, which is placing constraints on the legistartors. However if the legislation was lower in price then this may make biotechnology companies move to countries with less stricter rules. If this is the case then this may result in a race between genetically engineered pathogens and antidotes causing a huge risk and threat to the world.
However there are a number of advantages of gene therapy. For instance the
benefit of creating a designer baby without a generative disease. There is also the
possibility of correcting genetic defects when a child becomes older by altering the tissue which contains the defect.
The other usefulness of genetic engineering apart from creating babies is the ability to produce new strains of plants to increase food production. From a given amount of fonder animals can produce more meat or milk. There will be a reduction in the number of plants that need to be sprayed because they will produce their own insecticide. The other benefit of this is if plants can produce there own insecticide this may increase there resistant to insecticide.
The balance of the argument suggests that genetic engineering does have advantages and disadvantages as I have discussed above. But it is the uses to which humans put them whether it is creating a designer baby free of generative disease
or a baby with blue eyes which posses threat to humans themselves and the future.
