Designer babies
Should
genetic engineering or human cloning be used to create designer babies?
Every parent wants a perfect child - but what happens
when a parent wants a designer child - a child built to order,
a pedigree child, a super-breed, super-human or just a baby with
higher intelligence? Sex selection is just the start of
the process, a form of designer life: parents deciding that only
a certain type of perfectly normal child will be allowed to be
born.
Latest research is turning all these dreams into
reality, using technology developed originally for use in animals.
Click here: Full
text of The Genetic Revolution - by Dr Patrick Dixon
The simplest way to a designer child is human cloning:
taking a cell from an adult and combining it with a human egg
to make an identikit clone of the adult. This is the ultimate
pedigree child with guaranteed genes. What is more, we know
from tracking the life of the adult exactly what the designer
baby will look like at the age of two, ten, twenty, thirty and
so on. We know what diseases the designer person will be
likely to catch. We know a lot about the personality profile
of the growing child. Studies of identical twins reared
apart show us just how much more than we think is influenced by
our genes. Of course all identical twins are individuals
who make their own choices, but our genetic makeup is extremely
important in who we turn out to be. There are technical
hurdles still perhaps to be overcome before human cloning will
be a reality but the race is on - see feature
on cloning humans, also RealVideo
on how humans will be cloned.
Another more difficult way to make designer people,
or a super race, is to take sperm or eggs, or cells in a developing
embryo, and add new genes to them. This is called germ cell
alteration. Although this sounds very difficult, designer animals
are made routinely using genetic engineering. Indeed, official
government statistics show that almost a million designer animals
were made in UK laboratories alone, many as transgenic animals,
combinations of more than one species - say a cat and a
dog, or a mouse, fish and human (yes they have been made).
Usually only a tiny amount of genetic material is added, enough
to influence development.
A third way is to alter cells after birth.
This is called somatic cell alteration. Here the effects
will die out when the person dies, and will not be passed onto
a second generation of designer babies. This is unlike the
germ cell alterations which will always be passed into every generation
afterwards - perhaps for thousands of years with totally unknown
consequences for the future of the human race.
The technology for all these things already exists
- with the exception of a practical safe method of human cloning.
However, they will remain costly, controversial, and risky to
the child physically and perhaps psychologically.
Despite this, the lesson of history is that whatever
can be done, will be done somewhere, sometime by someone and designer
people will no doubt be made. When they are they will deserve
the same love, care and emotional understanding as any other children
- perhaps they will need a lot more.
We urgently need global agreement outlawing selection
of children on the basis of sex, intelligence potential or any
other characteristic in the normal range.
* Dr Patrick Dixon is author of The Rising Price
of Love published by Hodder. Full
text available free on the web - press here.
Blogs - web / video diaries on trends / management by Dr Patrick Dixon
Future Trends - main blog
Future of Banking and Financial Services
Future of Digital Technology
Future of the Telecom Industry
Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry
Future of Management
Future of Marketing
Conference Speakers
Lectures, Slides and Videos
AIDS Care Education and Training (ACET)
Spirituality
