Designer babies could make a huge difference in the world, but there are too many risk factors and problems with it at this point in time.
How Designer Babies Are Made.
The process of designing babies has just recently begun to arise in recent years. Scientists have been manipulating animal genes for some time now. Animal genes have been manipulated to improve quality or quantity of certain things. For example, goats and cows are manipulated to produce more milk or more proteins in their milk (King, 2007). Also, spider genes are injected into goat genomes to make silk (King, 2007). Some animals are used as a dummy for testing diseases and trying to find cures. Mice are injected with genes that cause diseases, so scientists can try to find a cure for the diseases (King, 2007). After a while of testing with animals, scientists began to try this procedure out on humans. .
Designer babies are made from preselected or modified genetic material to create babies with traits that the parents desire (Handyside, 2010). A couple will first begin to go about this by normal means. Women will try to get pregnant, and then proceed to take a pregnancy test. Once they test positive and are ensured that they are pregnant they can start taking the steps towards designing their baby. They will go to a specialist who will remove the eggs from the woman's uterus lining, and then take the eggs into a laboratory (Murray, 2014). In the laboratory the specific genes that are undesired or defective will be taken out of the DNA and replaced with the desired genes (Handyside, 2010). Then the eggs will be transferred back into the women's uterus. This process is called in vitro fertilization (Murray, 2014). After this, the woman will continue her pregnancy normally and go through birth just like any other woman. .
The Opposing Side.
Designer babies can be good because fallacious genes can be taken out of a babies genetic make up and replaced with satisfying genes.