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Deisgner Babies- your stance

Mizmoz

6

What do you think about it all?

Reply 1

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

what do you think?

It's generally good manners to state your own views before asking other people to post theirs :smile:

Reply 2

db

17

I thought only the HYS bot could start threads here? :s-smilie:

Reply 3

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

db

I thought only the HYS bot could start threads here? :s-smilie:

it can -doesn't mean threads can't be moved in here though...

Reply 4

Mizmoz

OP

6

yea, why was it moved?!!!

I think it's silly. And that society places too much importance on appearance nowadays. Your turn!

Reply 5

PinkMobilePhone

Chat Forum Helper, Life & Style Forum Helper

22

If the aim of the designer baby is to prevent it from having a terrible illness, then I can see why people would do it.

If it's just to give the child the preferred eye/hair colour, then absolutely not. Parents should love their child no matter what it looks like.

Even for health reasons though it still feels a little weird to me - it's like playing God almost. Like I said I can see why people would do it for that reason, but it does still make me kind of uncomfortable.

Reply 6

Doodahdoo

13

Haha, I thought that "designer babies" meant dressing babies in Burberry or something :smile:

Designer Babies: What's the need? We've survived for 60, 000 odd years, why is the importance now on changing the natural course of the world? It seems more and more that we are doing thingfs because we are able to, and not because we feel it's neccessary or indeed important.

Reply 7

ForumFreak

9

I get really bugged by people ranting on about designer babies when they dont have a clue what a designer baby actually is (I'm not accusing anyone here of that though :smile:

) I prefer the term embryo screening.
As for what I think of it, I think it should only be used for nasty diseases and not for stuff like looks or intelligence or sporting ability. I mean would a perfectly fertile woman really want to have to go through IVF for the sake of choosing her childs hair colour?

Reply 8

PinkMobilePhone

Chat Forum Helper, Life & Style Forum Helper

22

ForumFreak

I mean would a perfectly fertile woman really want to have to go through IVF for the sake of choosing her childs hair colour?

I guess it depends on the mentality of the woman.
Some rich stupid celebrity might - I wouldn't put it past them.

Reply 9

shyopstv

15

Simulatio

Haha, I thought that "designer babies" meant dressing babies in Burberry or something :smile:

Designer Babies: What's the need? We've survived for 60, 000 odd years, why is the importance now on changing the natural course of the world? It seems more and more that we are doing thingfs because we are able to, and not because we feel it's neccessary or indeed important.

We were surviving 60,000 years ago without any of the medical treatments we have today but that doesn't make them bad. I think it is far more immoral to force a child to be born with a terrible illness when it was possible for it to have been born without it.

As for other things like apearance, someone else summed it up perfectly when they said that you should love your child whatever they look like.

Reply 10

by-torslayshisfoe

I'm all for it. If parents want to do it, it should be their prerogative.

Reply 11

silverbolt

19

XenaGlamRocker

I guess it depends on the mentality of the woman.
Some rich stupid celebrity might - I wouldn't put it past them.

yeah paris hilton or someone as equally as vapid

Reply 12

soup_dragon87

Fine, I'll play Devil's advocate here.

Two really rather hideous parents want to have a child. They were both bullied because of their looks, and suffered from a crippling lack of self-confidence. Just because they will love their child regardless of appearance, doesn't mean the world will.

They have the chance to create a better life for their offspring by 'designing' their baby. Are they wrong to do so?

Reply 13

by-torslayshisfoe

No they aren't.

Reply 14

The_Bear

13

For sure designer babies should be allowed if the technology is available. Why anyone would want to change the looks of their baby is rather strange...unless you like being looked at as if you have cheated on your husband?

Reply 15

ForumFreak

9

soup_dragon87

Fine, I'll play Devil's advocate here.

Two really rather hideous parents want to have a child. They were both bullied because of their looks, and suffered from a crippling lack of self-confidence. Just because they will love their child regardless of appearance, doesn't mean the world will.

They have the chance to create a better life for their offspring by 'designing' their baby. Are they wrong to do so?

But you cant design exactly how a baby will look with this technique (which is basically why I dont like the term) all you can do is have IVF in the hope that at least one of the embryos has the desired characteristics. For example say I want a 6'5 blond haired son. I come from a long line of short dark haired people and if my husband is the same we will never produce an embryo like this.

Reply 16

AppleCrumble

Go for it, lets push humanity to its limits see what the best we can be is!

Reply 17

soup_dragon87

ForumFreak

But you cant design exactly how a baby will look with this technique (which is basically why I dont like the term) all you can do is have IVF in the hope that at least one of the embryos has the desired characteristics. For example say I want a 6'5 blond haired son. I come from a long line of short dark haired people and if my husband is the same we will never produce an embryo like this.

I'm talking more about future possibilities, pushing scientific potential to the max. And just because you come from a long line of short dark haired people, doesn't mean you don't have the gene for tallness or fair hairedness somewhere in your genetic arsenal. They could be recessive, or waiting for the corrent environmental factor.

Reply 18

ForumFreak

9

Actually my great grandmother had fair hair but my point is you are limited by the genes you have. If a couple have no blond genes then they wont make blond embryos. In the future it could be possible to use genetic engineering to introduce new genes into embryos but I personally think that would be creepy.

Reply 19

Mazraz

1

shyopstv

We were surviving 60,000 years ago without any of the medical treatments we have today but that doesn't make them bad. I think it is far more immoral to force a child to be born with a terrible illness when it was possible for it to have been born without it.

As for other things like apearance, someone else summed it up perfectly when they said that you should love your child whatever they look like.

but then the problem comes with defining terrrible illness. in our generally uncompromising soceity (lets face it, even people with the mildest disabilities have generally had to struggle to get to where they want to go, generally more than teh average joe) the slightest difference from the norm which is percieved in a negative way is seen as a terrible disease.
if you have seen the film GATTACA you will see what i mean but some people would argue that autism, dislexia etc are awful diseases which should be screened out if possible. in this case so many truly amazing people eg. einstein who was bl--dy brilliant in what he worked out in my opnion, wouldnt even be born.
due to this i think that we should not start on the slippery slope of trying to decide in generall what is good or bad and try and make soceity better for everyone (bad cliche i know but do you see what i mean?)

Deisgner Babies- your stance

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