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Lucas Perry
January 11, 2016
English 12 - G
Research Essay
No Designer Babies
In the novel Brave New World the author Aldous Huxley portrays a future dystopian
society where life begins and ends the same way, in a test tube. Babies are designed and
engineered from before their birth to eventually take their place in a society where anybody who
doesnt is thrown away and forgotten. As people finally die at the exact age of 60 they are
cremated into a powder which is harnessed as energy, thus playing a role in society even in
death. The entire novel starts and is based around the concept of designer babies, which is
beginning to be a very real possibility in a scary future.
Having the ability to play god in todays society could be catastrophic because of major
social concerns like tampering with human genetic structures, and the development of a social
caste system. Designer babies is a broad term encompassing several different reproductive
technologies that journalists use to describe progress in three specific fields of science. Society
is not and may not ever be ready for the social changes that could potentially come along with
designer babies due to the ethical debate, or how the consequences outweigh the benefits. If
designer babies were to ever become relevant, there would have to be a caste system for who is
allowed to have certain characteristics and traits. The concept of designer babies might be
inevitable, but our society as it stands today will not accept it into our culture. The concept of
designer babies is unethical and morally wrong.

The three main reproductive technologies which would make designer babies possible are
advanced reproductive technologies, cell and chromosome manipulation, and genetics and
genomics. The technologies allow the parents to have much more control over the appearance
and characteristics of their child. Advanced reproductive technologies will allow test tube babies
to be conceived thanks to in vitro fertilization. This technology is available today, without it
thousands of infertile mothers wouldnt be able to have children today, and the process alone is
exceptionally ethical and moral for that specific reason. Cell and chromosome manipulation is a
breakthrough in the knowledge scientists have about the structure and complexity of DNA. This
process is closely related to cloning using stem cells, as humans gain more knowledge about how
reproduction works more is learned about how to control and manipulate an embryos
development. The study of genetics and genomics is only in the very early stages of
development, and scientists hope to someday change bits and pieces of DNA or replace them
whenever they want. Each of these processes are useful in their own right and can help millions
of different people, but together they can create something far worse than they help seperately.
Dr. Stephen Baird explains, As our technical abilities progress, citizens will have to cope with
the ethical implications of designer babies, and governments will have to define a regulatory
course (Baird). The pressure right now is on the government, whether it is the U.S. government
or any other country, because a precedent needs to be set now before it gets out of control.
Tampering with genetics is very dangerous.
Ethical and moral dilemmas surrounding this issue will begin to grow and continue to be
at the forefront of society's problems until reforms come. Due to the controversial and broad
spectrum of views surrounding designer babies, world-wide regulations are needed and a clear
precedent needs to be set. In China they have already attempted to develop an embryo with

altering DNA using the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR),
the most technologically advanced machine that can edit an embryos genetic makeup. They
released their secret study this year, None of the 85 human embryos they injected fulfilled
those criteria. In almost every case, either the embryo died or the gene was not altered. Even the
four embryos in which the targeted gene was edited had problems (Kolata). After catching
word from these scientists, leaders in the science community came forwards to announce, In
major scientific journals last month to halt such work on human embryos, at least until it could
be proved safe and until society decides if it was ethical (Kolata) just in case some current
researchers are secretly working on designer babies. The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs
released a statement in 1994 in support of using genetic selection as a means to prevent or cure
specific diseases, but that selection based on benign characteristics was not ethical. The
precedent has already been set in the U.S., now all that needs to happen is for the scientists of the
world to come together and agree and establish that the development of designer babies is
ethically wrong.
Yet, the U.S. allows thousands of savior siblings to be born each year with the sole
purpose of their existence to provide their sibling with life. Savior siblings are a very new
discovery in the scientific community. They can be defined as, A child who is born with
particular genes that have been chosen in order to treat an older brother or sister who has a
disease (Cambridge). The sibling dedicates their entire life to saving their older brother or
sisters life. Much controversy and concern surround this practice. Is it ethical to produce
humans with the sole purpose of furthering anothers life? Some parents will pressure the savior
sibling into donating so many different organs and blood that its detrimental to their own health.
Another ethical debate around designer babies is that because people are born imperfect and if

scientists start manipulating imperfections with human genes those produced perfect arent
actually the current standard of human.
Savior siblings are not the only reason people use preimplantation genetic diagnosis,
PGD, which is the process where exact tissues matches are created in order to have identical
children. Parents have been using PGD to have children who are copies of earlier children they
have already had for benign characteristics such as hair or eye color. The bioethics project of
2012 at the Kent Place School released this study, As of 2006, more than 15,000 PGD cycles
have been reported in the United States and the number continues to grow exponentially as its
use for reasons other than medical ones, such as sex or physical trait selection, becomes more
and more common (Carmo). The study did not report how many of the 15,000 were for savior
siblings and how many were for other reasons. From 2012 the number has grown but no studies
as large as the aforementioned have been performed. Morals of every parent who uses PGD
should be questioned, to determine whether they are using it to help another or simply because
they want a specific baby. There are cases in which some of the parents pressure the savior
siblings into continuing to donate blood for years after they no longer want to.
There are alternative solutions to many of the diseases that savior siblings and PGD are
used to diagnos. One specific option is to save the umbilical cord from the moment every baby
is born to save the healthy blood and if any disease is to ever come up where the child needs
tissue or blood transfusion they have a perfect match. Obviously a perfect tissue match is better
than an exact one, so theres truly no need for PGD or savior siblings whatsoever, Even if an
exact tissue match is produced through the savior sibling, that blood is still never as precise or
effective to treat an illness as that of the sick childs own, (Carmo). The ethics behind this
procedure are very easy to understand, because the blood and tissues are not being taken from

another human, no one's rights or physical health care are being compromised. Designer babies
are truly not needed in this world, especially not in the United States where we have the
technology to use alternative procedures to produce the same results.
The ethical concerns bring about more dilemmas related to designer babies and PGD
because of the cost. Who should and who shouldnt be allowed to have access to the
technology? Answers to these topics are not set in stone, they are currently being debated around
the world. The hope is that some parameters can be built around the ethics of designer babies
sooner rather than later.
Designer babies would create many social challenges. An in vitro fertility procedure costs
$20,000 plus in the U.S. If genetic testing and egg donation or a surrogate mother are added, the
price is closer to $100,000 (The Fertility Institutes). No one should have the authority to say that
people cant have a baby even though the technology is available. One of the biggest problems
with designer babies is that not everybody would be able to afford it, and if everybody could,
there would still be variations, which creates a caste system as shown in Brave New World. The
technology and ideas already exist, scientists have been pushing for additional support for years
now. Another problem is how the structures of our society would suffer. Engineering the perfect
baby would have larger ramifications than just changing an individual or a single familys life.
As an example, if there were to ever be a caste system put in place, the elite of the society would
have access to all the latest and greatest new traits, setting the rest of the society behind.
Without the alterations to humans DNA strands, the human race would still go on,
because nature already has a way to change the genetic makeup of humans. Thats where natural
selection comes into play and the fact that the average humans characteristics have drastically
changed from a the beginning of time. The natural way just takes longer. The positive aspects of

genetic engineering, are that alterations can be made faster and diseases can be ultimately
eradicated. However, diseases which were around 200 years ago arent still around, due to the
fact that humans create vaccines and there will always be new diseases that need to be
eradicated. But why wait 200 years when scientists can start to develop a way to alter genes
immediately?
The negative side-effects tampering with human gene production outweigh the positive
aspects of designer babies. No designer baby has ever actually been born to date that is
documented. The attempts have all failed, but not before showing that rearranging genetics is
not what scientists should be wasting their time on. There is no current ban on studies
concerning advanced reproductive technologies, cell and chromosome manipulation, & genetics
and genomics. This is concerning after digesting all of the information mentioned in this
extensively researched, carefully developed, and well written essay about designer babies. The
process of engineering the perfect baby would take thousands of tries that could harm many
children and their mothers, The efficiency with which CRISPR can delete or disable a gene in a
zygote is about 40 percent, whereas making specific edits, or swapping DNA letters, works less
frequently--more like 20 percent of the time (Regalado).
The purpose of this essay is to explain how designer babies are unethical and morally
wrong, along with define multiple terms and provide evidence supporting the claim. Studies in
advanced reproductive technologies will further propagate the knowledge and understanding of
how designer babies are made. The human race will know more about the background of them
and begin to accept it as a form of normality or opportunity. As the technology advances, the
inevitability of designer babies becomes much more real. Ethical and moral threats begin to
grow along with the reality. People may come to the realization of the negative implications of

designer babies too late, after the practice is established. The U.S. allows savior siblings, a basic
form of designer babies, continue to be produced even though the precedent has been set that
genetic selection based on benign characteristics in unethical. There are many different
alternative solutions to the problems savior siblings are made to fix without harming humans, yet
the government obviously does not feel like enforcing their rule. PGD and genetic screening are
breakthroughs in the scientific community recently related to designer babies, and one step has
been taken towards the black hole which is designer babies. Designer babies are not a necessity
to society today, and they will never become relevant if we deal with the problem now and begin
to set rules and regulations on the study and research of them.

Works Cited
Baird, Stephen L. "Designer Babies: Eugenics Repackaged or Consumer Options? (cover
Story)." Technology Teacher 66.7 (2007): 12-16. Professional Development Collection.
Web. 6 Nov. 2015.
"The Bioethics Project 2012 - The Medically Modified Human." The Bioethics Project 2012 The Medically Modified Human. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Catalano, Michael. "The Prospect of Designer Babies: Is It Inevitable?" The Prospect of

Designer Babies: Is It Inevitable? University of North Carolina, 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Kolata, Gina. "Chinese Scientists Edit Genes of Human Embryos, Raising Concerns." The New
York Times. The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.
Ly, Sara. "The Embryo Project Encyclopedia." Ethics of Designer Babies. Arizona State
University, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Naik, Gautam. "A Baby, Please. Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic." WSJ. The Wall Street
Journal, 12 Feb. 2009. Web. 06 Nov. 2015.
Regalado, Antonio. "Engineering the Perfect Baby. (cover Story)." MIT Technology Review
(2015): 26. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2015.
"Select the Gender of Your Next Baby." Gender Selection Centers. The Fertility Institutes, 2015.
Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
"Should There Be Designer Babies?" Should There Be Designer Babies? N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov.
2015.
Spencer, Ben. "'Designer Baby' Fear as Chinese Are First to Alter Embryo Genes." Daily Mail
(2015): 12. MainFile. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.