designer babies essay pdf

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Designer Babies : Ethical Considerations

• Published 2015

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Ethics of designer babies [1], ethics of designer babies, related papers.

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Ethics of Designer Babies

A designer baby is a baby genetically engineered in vitro for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection. Before the advent of genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization (IVF), designer babies were primarily a science fiction concept. However, the rapid advancement of technology before and after the turn of the twenty-first century makes designer babies an increasingly real possibility. As a result, designer babies have become an important topic in bioethical debates, and in 2004 the term “designer baby” even became an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary . Designer babies represent an area within embryology that has not yet become a practical reality, but nonetheless draws out ethical concerns about whether or not it will become necessary to implement limitations regarding designer babies in the future.

The prospect of engineering a child with specific traits is not far-fetched. IVF has become an increasingly common procedure to help couples with infertility problems conceive children, and the practice of IVF confers the ability to pre-select embryos before implantation. For example, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allows viable embryos to be screened for various genetic traits, such as sex-linked diseases, before implanting them in the mother. Through PGD, physicians can select embryos that are not predisposed to certain genetic conditions. For this reason, PGD is commonly used in medicine when parents carry genes that place their children at risk for serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. Present technological capabilities point to PGD as the likely method for selecting traits, since scientists have not established a reliable means of in vivo embryonic gene selection.

An early and well-known case of gender selection took place in 1996 when Monique and Scott Collins saw doctors at the Genetics & IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, for in vitro fertilization. The Collins’ intended to conceive a girl, as their first two children were boys and the couple wanted a daughter in the family. This was one of the first highly publicized instances of PGD in which the selection of the embryo was not performed to address a specific medical condition, but to fulfill the parents’ desire to create a more balanced family. The Collins’ decision to have a “designer baby” by choosing the sex of their child entered the public vernacular when they were featured in Time Magazine’s 1999 article "Designer Babies". Though the Collins’ case only involved choice of gender, it raised the issues of selection for other traits such as eye color, hair color, athleticism, or height that are not generally related to the health of the child.

Prior to the Collins’ decision to choose the sex of their child, The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs released a statement in 1994 in support of using genetic selection as a means to prevent, cure or specific diseases, but that selection based on benign characteristics was not ethical. Some ethical concerns held by opponents of designer babies are related to the social implications of creating children with preferred traits. The social argument against designer babies is that if this technology becomes a realistic and accessible medical practice, then it would create a division between those that can afford the service and those that cannot. Therefore, the wealthy would be able to afford the selection of desirable traits in their offspring, while those of lower socioeconomic standing would not be able to access the same options. As a result, economic divisions may grow into genetic divisions, with social distinctions delineating enhanced individuals from unenhanced individuals. For example, the science-fiction film Gattaca explores this issue by depicting a world in which only genetically-modified individuals can engage in the upper echelon of society.

Other bioethicists have argued that parents have a right to prenatal autonomy, which grants them the right to decide the fate of their children. George Annas, chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights at Harvard University has offered support for the idea of PGD, and the designer babies that result, as a consumer product that should be open to the forces of market regulation. Additionally, other arguments in favor of designer baby technologies suggest that parents already possess a high degree of control over the outcome of their children’s lives in the form of environmental choices, and that this should absolve some of the ethical concerns facing genetic selection. For example, parents keen on establishing musical appreciation in their children may sign them up for music classes or take them to concerts on a regular basis. These choices affect the way a child matures, much like the decision to select certain genes predisposes a child to develop in ways that the parents have predetermined are desirable.

The increased ability to control and manipulate embryos presents many possibilities for improving the health of children through prenatal diagnosis, but these possibilities are coupled with potential social repercussions that could have negative consequences in the future. Ultimately, designer babies represent great potential in the field of medicine and scientific research, but there remain many ethical questions that need to be addressed.

• Agar, Nicholas. American Institute of Biological Sciences. “Designer Babies: Ethical Considerations,” http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html (Accessed October 16, 2010).
• Annas, George. “Noninvasive Prenatal Diagnostic Technology: Medical, Market, or Regulatory Model?” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 721 (1994): 262–8.
• Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association. “Ethical Issues Related to Prenatal Genetic Testing,” Archives of Family Medicine 3 (1994): 633–42.
• Kitcher, Philip. “Creating Perfect People.” In Companion to Genetics , eds. Justine Burley and John Harris, 229–42. Boston: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
• Lemonick, Michael. “Designer Babies.” 153, Time Magazine, January 11, 1999.
• Morales, Tatiana. CBS News. “Choosing Your Baby’s Gender.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/06/earlyshow/contributors/emilysenay/main528404.shtml (Accessed October 17, 2010).
• Verlinsky, Yuri. “Designing Babies: What the Future Holds,” Reproductive BioMedicine Online 10 (2005): 24–6.

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Designer Babies

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• Ronald Green 2  

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The phrase “designer babies” can indicate a range of genetic interventions from disease-preventing embryo selection to genetic modifications aimed at providing enhanced traits and abilities. In this range, enhancements raise the sharpest ethical questions. Five of the leading questions are examined here: (1) Will genetic modifications risk the health of the resulting children? (2) Will modifications reduce the willingness of parents to love and accept their children? (3) Will genetically modified individuals suffer a reduced sense of freedom or self-esteem? (4) Will genetic interventions heighten social injustice? (5) Does human genetic engineering amount to a sinful “playing God”?

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Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

Ronald Green

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Duquesne University Center for Healthcare Ethics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Henk ten Have

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Green, R. (2015). Designer Babies. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_138-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_138-1

Received : 19 January 2015

Accepted : 19 January 2015

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“Designer Babies” and the Culture of “Perfection”: Eugenics Reborn? (2014)

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Brigitte Nerlich

no abstract

Sylvia Theresa Fernandez

Patrick Merricks

This article explores the eugenic ideas of Ernest William Barnes (1874–1953), the Bishop of Birmingham. E.W. Barnes was a key proponent of sterilisation and euthanasia in post-war Britain, yet is a figure that scholarship on British eugenics has largely overlooked. He gave several eugenic-themed lectures after 1945 that gained significant newspaper coverage in the Times and the Manchester Guardian. The debate that ensued can serve as a microcosm for wider philosophical and ethical debates occurring in this period. Focusing particularly on the interlinking roles played by eugenics and religion in the inter- and post-war periods, this article identifies Barnes within this ever-evolving ideological climate as both a religious leader and campaigner for the perceived declining cause of eugenics.

This is a brief essay of the technology behind designer babies. The origins stem from a study of genetics. The concept of designer babies fall under Assisted Reproductive Technology and there are a few successful case studies that are mentioned in the essay. This essay also mentions some current issues stemming from this technology and possible future developments in the relevant science and technology fields, as well as societal changes.

Robert A Wilson , Joshua St. Pierre

ranya hamzeh

Christian Munthe

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is taken to mark the starting-point of a new phase in human reproduction, where the possibility of choosing children on genetic grounds without having to resort to dangerous or ethically controversial procedures (such as abortion) will gradually increase. Ethical and political issues actualised by this development are addressed. The discussion touches upon issues regarding the moral status of embryos and gametes, the moral import of respecting individual autonomy and its implications for the requirement of informed consent in health-care, the connection between disease, disability and the value of life, the moral status of possible future people, and the connection between choosing children and eugenic policies of the past. Practical policy issues are addressed on the basis of this, as well as an empirical case-study of the introduction of PGD in Sweden. The book ends up in a set of recommendations regarding the management of research on, introduction and routine use of pure selection, both within health care and from the point of view of society as a whole. It is argued that research on such procedures should be allowed and supported by society. However, tight restrictions regarding the clinical introduction of new procedures in this area is highly desirable. A rough model for implementing such restrictions is also presented. It is further asserted that, although reasons of economy and safety should limit the access to pure selection, society should not apply any explicit restrictions based on ideas regarding how different traits affect a person's quality of life. It is stressed that, in order to avoid a resurrection of eugenic policies of the past, the development in this field underlines the need for continued and strengthened public support to the sick, disabled and mentally retarded. Keywords: assisted procreation, bioethics, embryo experimentation, eugenics, genetic testing, in vitro fertilisation, medical ethics, medical genetics, polar body biopsy, preconception diagnosis, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, prenatal diagnosis, public policy, reproductive medicine, research ethics, sex preselection.

Rainer Brömer , Prof. Dr. İLHAN İLKILIÇ (MD PhD)

Medicine Studies

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David Kirby

The persistence of eugenic themes in cinema over the last 100 years reflects fundamental societal beliefs about heredity’s role as the source of social problems. From its earliest days science fiction cinema’s critiques of eugenics were not aimed at the movement’s underlying assumptions that humanity’s fundamental nature lies within its genome and its relationship to social problems. Most science fiction films either implicitly accept these assumptions or incorporate them into their narratives and visuals. At the same time, however, these films criticize anyone who would change human heredity. By accepting the proposition that the essence of humanity, both the good and the bad, is deeply rooted within our genome, science fiction films take a conservative stance by critiquing any attempts to change the elements that make us “human.”

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