The idea of parents choosing
the desired traits for their children (designer babies) seems appealing at
first. Why not abolish de facto discrimination based on people’s height,
weight, abnormal personalities, facial features, hair abundance, and mental
capacity, for example. A world in which everyone was designed have optimal
heath and well-being would get rid of discrimination, right?
The biggest counterargument
for designer babies is that, while it would end some current forms of
discrimination, it would create perhaps the most significant form of
discrimination, discrimination based on genetics. Kids who don’t have the
latest and most optimal genes will be regarded as fundamentally inferior, which
they would be. “Natural births” and the “imperfect” children that result from
them would be condemned by society for depending on the luck of nature. A world
like the one in Gattaca would emerge
that segregates people in two categories: the genetically superior and the
genetically inferior.
Gattaca does a good job of illustrating the dangers of being too zealous with
designer babies. In the film, we are introduced to a world set in the future
where genomics has gotten so advanced that everyone can create a specific
child, everyone can easily check anyone else’s genome, and therefore, there
exists discrimination for employment based on the superiority of one’s genes.
One of the positive aspects of this world are that hereditary defects are
eliminated via embryonic genetic modification while desirable traits that
result in superior health and well-being are encouraged; the probability of
alcoholism, susceptibility to violence, baldness, obesity, along with cystic
fibrosis for example, are greatly reduced while the best traits are
invigorated. Other positive aspects of the Gattaca
world are its easy access to finding suitable mates by knowing the unforeseen
defects of future partners, to recognizing criminals based on DNA
identification, and to specializing people for different careers (the pianist
with twelve fingers for example).
Although there are some positive
aspects Gattaca world, the negative
aspect of this dystopia far outweighs the benefits: the people of Gattaca lack freedom! Everything from
the school you enter as a child to the job you are hired for depends on your
genome, and deviation from this status quo is very difficult (almost
impossible). Another major problem genetic modification creates in this world
is an extraordinary expectation of people with superior genes to succeed. This
film illustrates that discrimination will always exist as you continue to try
to make people the same, and that that pursuit of equality is overrated and
dangerous.
Another counterarguments for
designer babies is that it is inherently wrong to perceive the chance of nature
as a hindrance to human perfection, rather than a contributor to that
perfection. One can think of the purpose of life as being the pursuit of
happiness with what (genetic and environmental strengths and weaknesses) you’ve
got, and that it is completely immoral to destroy the natural lottery of human
attributes because it is essential to fulfillment in life. Not having any
genetic diversity and strengths and weaknesses makes life mundane and boring.
Although being able to have
a “perfect” child is interesting to every parent, a whole city of “perfect”
children does not seem so pleasant in any sense of the word.
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