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Designer babies. It's like a menu of ordering what characteristics your baby will have. Is this really ethical? Tell me your opinions on this.

When you mean by babies are referring to the baby commercials or super models?

I kind of 'lol'd at your comment.

No. "Designer Babies" are popular term for genetically engineered babies from it's embryoic stage. A genetic restructuring of the embryo so that the negative genetics of its parents aren't born into the baby.

The parents can choose which gender they want their child to be, their hair color, eye color, and their characteristics. Of course, they can make the baby smarter, above average height, and physically better.

The only un-ethical thing I found about creating a designer baby is that if the baby will enjoy having these features, because he/she didn't have any control over what they were(you could counter by saying a normal process is this way, but you have no control in the "normal process"). So basicly, your child could hate you for something it didn't want, or would jut prefer of having it chanced.

I don't see what could possibly be wrong with it, so long as people don't deliberately choose babies with bad traits.

It will be unethical. I see it as humans trying to play God. It wouldnt even be your child anymore if you were able to order what characteristics or traits you want your baby to have. Like when you white and you want a blue eyed black skin baby. Who would even know it was your baby? It wouldnt even have the same DNA. Think of what the baby is going to say when they grow up.

Mommy, was I adopted or genetically engineered?

It's unethical but in most cases I'm not against it. If you want to make sure your child is not going to turn out to be a retard or you're allergic to the color brown, this is a nice thing you can do. Or make sure the baby won't be sick when it's born.

Ethical. From what I see, it would allow you to remove various genetic diseases or disorders (Down's Syndrome, XO chromosome, XXY, etc.) and allow your child to live a more productive life. If it makes you happier to have a white baby with blue eyes or a black baby there's no problem with that. It's not as if that makes it so you would love it any less. I don't see what is wrong with humans playing god, especially if it doesn't hurt anyone (and this wouldn't as long as you had proper controls in place).

It doesnt hurt anyone? What do you think will happen if everyone was perfectly fine and barely died. The world would run out of space for humans to live. And when the babies know that they were genetically engineered, soon they would come to think of it as being a mutant or a freak.

I'm for adding intellegance, or possibly doing it to cure disease. But basing the child off of the parent completly or being able to control the gender of your child, and other facotrs. Your child would probely hate you for not having a trait they want, or they may have jut wanted to go "random" and been born the normal way.

I agree. Humans may have research many things in the medical field but thats something that should not be tampered with. We might even cause more problems on ourselves if something is not done with. Imagine an G-engineered baby that in 25 years it has a child and it is worst then ever. That could spread and who knows the consequences.

I believe that it's the parent's choice of whether or not they want their baby to be designed. What do they truly care about the other person's child, other parents' decisions, other beliefs in the entangelment of religion and medical findings? A genetically designed child isn't going to harm another family because he was designed.

I think it's a good thing, and I don't really have a problem with it. Humans are getting physically weaker, I think, because we let the weak live, which no other species does. Sooner or later, there will be more weak than strong, and if that's the case that won't be good in the long run :\

Well considering how many girls want to look like Paris Hilton, I think it would be a hit. Although I don't like any of those girls so I disapprove. If people used it to make their children have more interesting personalities by giving them defects, then it would be a better use. But I just dislike the attitude of people who think they look cool.

No. Never. It's unethical.


As a parent, learning to care and adapt to your children is probably the ultimate step in growing up. If you truly love your child, then you should not let his or her bad qualities take the best of you.

Some children's genes have Diamond Blackfan anaemia ( a rare disorder ), Phaconi anaemia, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle-cell disease and other genetically transferred diseases that are highly fatal and brings suffering to the child in their life time. Some are even said to gain early cancer or Alzheimer's.
I think it's ethical to use it so people won't have diseases fatal. It would be better to prevent it rather than treating it after happening.

A very odd subject I think the child, but I don't think its good to change how a child is going to look too many bad things can happen so I think it would be best left natural.

The same could have been said of gunpowder, or steam engines, or computers. Yet we have reaped enormous benefits from all of those inventions. Using them obviously isn't immoral. So why should genetically engineered babies be any different? I think you're averse to it mostly because it's new and strange. People have always resisted change, even though most of the time it was for the better.

It isn't your child when you adopt it. I don't see anyone complaining about adoption being immoral.

If they and their parents have any sense, probably 'Gee, thanks!'.

Why? If you saw a person walking down the street who originally had genes for dark skin but who was genetically modified to have white skin, would you even be able to tell the difference? Once genetic engineering of babies becomes commonplace, I suspect that most people (aside from those few racist bigots who insult all minority groups as being inferior just to make themselves feel better about their own worthlessness) will quickly accept it and such genetically engineered kids will soon be thought of as perfectly normal.

Those would be completely hollow and pointless arguments, because at the time the choice was made, the kid was not nearly developed enough even to have a nervous system, never mind be able to make those kinds of decisions. It's one thing if your parents deliberately make you stupid, but if they merely fail to give you a certain skin color you'd prefer, you don't really have much to say.

Again, there have been many things through history about which people have said 'No, that shouldn't be tampered with.'. I'm sure we 'shouldn't have tampered with' explosives, metallurgy, the atom and artificial intelligence in their time, yet all of them have benefitted us enormously. Genetic engineering of humans is not fundamentally different. As with most technologies, it can help us when used correctly and harm us when used wrongly. It's our job to use it correctly, not to prevent it from ever becoming available. If everyone thought that way, we'd still be living in caves and eating raw buffalo meat. Not my idea of progress.

Yes, it makes sense to not let yourself get overwhelmed by something your baby doesn't have. But that doesn't mean that we should welcome difficulties in our life or something like that. Problems are there, yes, but they're there to be solved, not suffered.

Edit: You post too quickly Green_Meklar.



In terms of ability and appearance, I think it's useless. If everyone's perfect, no one is. But in terms of medical applications I think it would be a huge step.




Playing God? What's not "playing God"? In the modern world we have medicine to treat fatal illnesses. If a man got a virus do you think "God" intended for us to heal him? Did "God" give us legs in order for us to build cars and airplanes? Did "God" intend for us to create tools in the first place? We're already "playing God", like it or not.

Clarification: I don't believe in God.

If the day comes when babies are generally genetically enhanced, it would most likely be accepted by society (Most people wouldn't be bothered by it).

I think the argument that you're "playing god" is bull. If a god did exist, especially if it was the Christian god, it would theoretically know what humans were going to do. And if it knew what we were going to do and didn't prevent it, it's obviously not that bad. I honestly fail to see how saving lives is a bad thing. I would like people to explain how saving lives is a bad thing. If anything playing god should be a good thing as we are supposed to emulate our creator (sans the flood and all other negative actions he theoretically has done).

That being said, I honestly don't mind if the human race is made more knowledgable and beautiful. I'm not sure how it would hurt anyone.



Not if we have methods of birth control. Children would only need to be born when the parents wanted them to be born.



You mean like if children find out if they are a mistake or adopted? Both of the crises that may happen later if they realize it after they reach adulthood. However, it can easily be averted if the parent tells the child at an early age. Also, you aren't a mutant or a freak if you have the most beneficial traits.

It would be nice it it was restricted to preventing harmful diseases from possibly occurring.

It's unethical...like abortions...and with all that anti god bull**** ask yourself if you would do this if you were god...

God actually wanted us to be immortal in the first place.

But the first parents sinned and all of the worlds problem well, entered the world.

That's your que to kill all immortal people.