Designer Baby

Would you prefer tall or short? Blue or black eye? Girl or boy? Do you want them become muscle bounded sports player? Or you want them become intelligent book worm? Is that a crazy idea? No, it’s not. Most of us have seen the term “designer baby” used by media. The image in our brain may be something couples sitting down with a catalogue and carefully selecting each feature, characteristic and trait one by one; sex, eye and hair color, height, weight, talents….Does this sound like a scary thought?

With rapid advances in scientific knowledge of the human genome and our increasing ability to modify and change genes, this scenario of "designing" your baby could well be possible in the near future…

Designer Baby

In 2004, the term “Designer Baby” could be found in the Oxford English Dictionary and it was explained as a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combine with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence and absence of particular gene and characteristics.

The genetic screening technique has been used in the genetic engineering and can be selected by sex and check for disease bearing gene. So, if analyzed it before the implantation stage when we using in vitro fertilization, it is enable the pregnancy to be created due to absence of any disease bearing genes.

How to modify human before he/she born?

PGD –Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis

Using current scientific methods inevitably means that if a person wants to have a child of the sex of their choice then they will need to undergo In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment. An unfertilized eggs will be removed from the women, fertilized in a petri dish and then brought to a zygote (eight cell) stage at which point cells are removed and tested using a technique know as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). The same technique is more commonly used for testing for genetic disorders.

Some people concerned that the use of PGD to select embryos free from disease is a step down the slippery slope to “designer baby”, chosen for attributes such as height, intelligence, and sporting ability. However, such traits, like many common illness, are the result of many different genetic and non-genetic factors. May it will never possible to select embryos with a “shopping list” of desired characteristics, even if there were ever a demand for such children.

However, the only one exception to this is gender, a non-medical trait for which some couples have already used PGD to select either a boy or girl.

In vitro fertilization

PGD does not involve the genetic modification of human embryos and hence avoids some of the risks described above. However, In vitro fertilization is the methods that can be used in designing a baby. There is also another method which still in proposing state, that is creating the 47th chromosome that carrying all desired gene on that chromosome, which in turns is the gene that control the desired phenotype of the baby.

In Vitro Fertilization or IVF is proved to allow doctors and parents in reducing the chance of getting genetic disorder for the new born baby. This technique can be used in determining the sex and the genes of the baby. The process of IVF is demonstrated as follow.

Fig. 1. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). A. A sperm is immobilized after the sperm tail is touched by the injection pipette. B. The injection pipette carrying a sperm is piercing the zona pellucida. C. The injection pipette applies suction on the oolemma to break it. D. The oolemma is broken and the sperm is delivered inside the ooplasm.

Animation demonstrating IVF, In vitro Fertilisation. (Medindia Health Network Pvt Ltd, 2010) (Available from URL : http://www.medindia.net/animation/IVF.asp)

• Besides, there is another method that has been published. Ooplasmic transfer from fertile donor oocyte into potentially compromised recipient patient oocytes has led to the birth of nearly 30 babies worldwide (Barritt J. A., et al, 2001). This technique involved the mixing of human ooplasm from two different maternal sources and hence may generate mitochondrial heteroplasmy in offspring which leads to inheritance of two mtDNA populations in children resulting from ooplasmic transplantation.

• Creating the 47th chromosome (also called techno-chromosome) is a new idea that creating a pair of artificial chromosome that carries desired genes or new genes introduced by researchers in order for the expression of certain phenotype.

Is it applicable??? Think about it….

Real Life Example of Genetically Modified Baby

What should we do to enable the parents can sit down and choose the characteristics for their children? Scientist will need to do a lot more work on identifying and isolating the specific genes that control the growth and development of each individual feature, trait, characteristic or talent. Then they will need to work out how to alter the DNA so that the child matches the tick boxes. Now, we know that the formation of the human is a highly complex process of interaction and interweaving and not simply a case of take this gene, change it and hey presto the baby that was going to have green eyes will now have brown eyes. There is a great deal of uncertainty and fear about what might happen once we start to 'mess around' with our offspring's DNA, but it probably will happen eventually and parents are likely to be able to sit down and start ticking those boxes.

Britain’s first cancer free design baby born after being screened for deadly gene

In real life, by the report of SAM GREENHILL, JENNY HOPE and NICK MCDERMOTT, the first British baby designed to be free of breast cancer has been born into an ethical storm. Besides, she will grow up without a gene which has blighted three generations of her father’s family. Her parents also very delighted because she was their first child and both of them hope that it can break the chain of cancer they suffered it in. It was a breakthrough in the genetic engineering area, it give hope for the parents that are worried to give birth due to the diseases they have. In future, it may enforce parents to design their baby.

Figure of IVF techniques allowed two cancer-free embryos to be implanted into the mother's womb.

15 designer babies from US laboratory work

Furthermore, the designer baby project was carried out in certain countries. It has been confirmed by scientist that the first genetically altered humans have been born and are healthy. In the US laboratory, 15 children were born from one experimental program. A genetic fingerprint test was carried out on two one-year old children and from the results it has been confirmed that they contain a small quantity of additional genes not inherited from either parents but instead was from a healthy donor. This was to overcome the infertility problems of the mother. It is illegal to do so in many countries and the US Government will not provide funds for any experiment that intentionally or unintentionally alters inherited genes.

"Regarding the treatment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing," he said. "I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain. Infertility pioneer Lord Winston of the Hammersmith Hospital in London told BBC News Online that he had great reservations about it. (Dr. David Whitehouse, 2001)

New Jersey's Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St. Barnabas has used the technique called ooplasmic transfer which involves taking the contents of a donor egg from a fertile female and injecting it into the infertile woman's egg along with the fertilizing sperm from her mate to produce the 15 babies. The oldest turns four years old in a month, said scientific director, Dr. Jacques Cohen. The institute was the first to use the technique but another 15 babies have been born following the use of the technique at other facilities, he said. The researchers believe the technique helps women conceive who have been unable to do so because of defects in their eggs. (CNN, 2001)

Ethical Issues Of Genetically Modified Human

The genetically modification of human has raised many controversial ethical issues. Although gene therapy does cure many of the patient, but the use of genetic engineering for human enhancement arouses the strongest feelings on both sides.

There are 2 types of moral or ethical question can ask about designer babies: Firstly, are the technologies of genetic engineering safe enough to be used on human? Secondly, even though it is safe to used, can they be morally defended?

Firstly, we can discuss about the safety of the technology. There is an example of the ‘doogie’ mice. Geneticists discovered that if inserted an additional copy of a gene into mouse genomes, NR2B, which codes for one type of glutamate receptor and is known to help in development of the brain. The ‘doogie’ mice seem to learn faster than the other mice and retain information longer (Joe Z. Tsien, 1999). Therefore, assume that the NR2B can be inserted to human body, we can also produce a ‘superhuman’. But the safety of the method is being concerned:

The image of the ‘doogie’ mice.

• Current techniques of genetic modification introduce genes at random places in the genome. We should be concerned about the possibility that an inserted copy of NR2B may arrive in the target genome in a way that disrupts the function of another gene crucial for survival.

• Many genes have more than one effect. The effect we intend may be accompanied by others of which we become aware only later. There is evidence for such effects on doogie mice, which seem not only to have improved powers of learning and memory, but also to have a greater sensitivity to pain, an enhancement of more dubious desirability.5

• Many of the traits that we may want to select are influenced by multiple genes. A gene affects intelligence only in combination with other genes. We are unlikely to find single genes whose modification would reliable.

Beside that, the method to transferring the desired gene to human genome is unpredictable. The insertion of the gene may cause activation of the oncogene which will develop cancer cells. Thus, the safety of the genetic engineering of human is still not confirmed yet and we should not trust it too much.

In other hand, we should consider the genetic modified baby is a way of attributes of enhancing the human gene or just a method to prevent a disease? Opponents of the liberal argument for enhancement argue that there are morally significant differences between upbringing and genetic enhancement. Francis Fukuyama thinks that genetic enhancements may change our descendents to such an extent that they lose their humanity. According to Fukuyama, environmental influences operate only within limits set by genes, meaning that even ambitious education programs leave their subjects’ humanity intact. A genetically enhanced child is more fittingly described as a “posthuman.” The price for her super intelligence will be the experiences that give human lives meaning (Francis Fukuyama, 2003).

Another case, the germline gene therapy is so expensive that only the families wealthy enough to design their own children. The enhanced traits of the families will be passing down to future generation. But the impact on the society will be a new alignment of classes. The human will be divided into 2 classes which will be called as ‘the naturals’ and ‘the GenRich’. (Lee M.Silver 313). The major worry here is that the ‘genetic gulf’ between these 2 classes will become so wide that human will become separate species.

PGD and Disease identification - Is it all good? Bad? Think about it….

PGD is the most common technique to identify what embryo are disease carrier and then discard those embryo which is unsuitable for the implantation. It sounds good. Besides, a lot of parents that worry about their future children due to they are in serious inherited disease condition, they are seek to the PGD and hope that this technology can help them to avoid their baby from the suffering of any disease. But is it always good and is everyone really so enthusiastic about the use of the technology?

There are other issues such as the way we view our offspring. Will children become a mere commodity designed by us to fit into our world as an accessory and not as an individual in their own right? Taken to the extreme will the use of PGD create a race of perfect unblemished stereotyped people variety only coming out of changes in fashion? Who will ultimately make the decisions about what is acceptable what is not and how can we ensure that the technology will be used responsibly?

In terms of the future, the technique may be used as a step to design our baby. But, we hope that the technology can be used in the right way and responsibly.

Future Human Evolution

The concept of designer baby and the technologies available now will make a lot of question marks in our society from now on. Is that good? Bad? Will it affect human evolution? No one knows…

But can you imagine a society free from some of the more horrendous genetic disorders, a society where children can be bred for specific purposes like off planet living, where genetic manipulation is essential for survival.

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