| The topic of "designer babies" is one that is becoming a real issue in today's society. With growing research and development of new techniques will someday make it possible for prospective parents to design their unborn children from the color of their hair and eyes to their IQ and hobbies. It will also be possible to make sure that the children will have no genetic diseases or problems that can be prevented. This topic also brings about many legal and ethical issues that must be discussed before we allow designer babies to become a reality. There are many things that we can already do to determine certain aspects of unborn children, such as their sex. We are also learning how to select out certain diseases such as Tay Sachs, Down's syndrome or Huntington's diseases. This web page will explore many aspects of designer babies including what can be done now and the procedures available as well as legal, ethical, and parental implications. The future is a very important part of the discussion of designer babies because every day new advances are being made. The Human Genome Project has made all of this possible. While trying to map the 26 chromosomes of a DNA strand, they have found many genetic links to diseases. Now over 400 diseases can be screened for and possibly one day corrected. |
Back to Designer Babies