Designer Babies Case Study

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Ethics : An area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior : a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong. (1) When we hear the word ‘designer’, instinctively we tend to think of expensive brand labels; but what happens when the term ‘designer’ is used to describe a human being? What is a designer baby?: A designer baby is an embryo that has been customised. This is achieved by genetic selection and preimplantation genetic diagnosis,‘PGD’, whereby the choice to implant the embryo depends on the diagnosis of genetic tests. Ethical questions surrounding designer babies have reached a crescendo in recent years as the medical profession, governments and the general public grapple with the rights and wrongs of such predetermined selection in the creation of embryos.…show more content…
An example of this is when a family’s medical history includes conditions such as if a cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease and other serious genetic diseases. In these cases altering the defective genes can increase the likelihood of a ‘healthy child’ for these families. Thus eliminating the suffering of the family, caused by miscarriages and/or the abortion of defective embryos. There are some cases where designer babies are completely ‘designer’. In such cases, the prospective parents select the gender, eye and hair colour, stature and even adult height. The media have reported that celebrities, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, had pre-selected their recently born child’s gender. This maybe due to the fact that they had in-vitro fertilization at a clinic that offers such gender assignment. The couple have denied this rumour. Ethically, in my own opinion, the use of PGD should only take place to enable the birth of a healthy child, not to facilitate the choice of physical features or

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