Frankenbabies!!!!!!!

Have you ever thought about being able to customize your own offspring? What about specifically deciding the color of their eyes or hair? Well that is a possibility that could happen at some point in the future and starts with the genetic modification of human embryos. Kathy Niakan is one such scientist who is asking the government of England’s fertility regulator for a license to conduct genome editing on embryos. By doing very basic research on the embryos, her team hopes to find why some women lose their baby early on in the cycle of pregnancy. She claims, “The knowledge we acquire will be very important for understanding how a healthy human embryo develops, and this will inform our understanding of the causes of miscarriage. It is not a slippery slope [towards designer babies] because the UK has very tight regulation in this area,” (Sample, Guardian 7).  Well as of now, designer babies are not going to happen anytime soon. There are still far too many tests that need to be done in order to discover how to target specific places in the genetic code. As can be seen, genetic engineering is definitely advancing as the future progresses. Repairing the genetic code seems to be one of the major experiments that is being undertaken by Niakan who is one of the major scientists in this field of study. However, along with the advocates, are the naysayers who believe that this technology could go too far which leads to the question: Is genetically modifying human embryos unethical or could it truly redefine and aid the human race?
            Years ago, the concept of thinking that humans could define what their offspring would look like was far from people’s minds. Now, scientists are able to redefine the future of the human race.  Earlier this year there was a lot of controversy over the concept of three parent babies. Scientists have discovered a way to replace the faulty mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) in a woman with the healthier DNA from a second woman in order for the child to inherit both of the women’s DNA. Then, the father would fertilize the egg (Sample, 2). As of now, scientists do not completely understand the mitochondria which has raised ethical concerns in other scientists. They believe that more research should be conducted on the mitochondria before conducting what could be a dangerous procedure. It could have unforeseen effects on the embryos and people do not like that the baby would have three parents (Knapton, 4). Critics of this method also believe that this process could eventually lead to the dreaded “designer babies.” Dr. David King, the director of the Human Genetics Alert stated that "The techniques are unethical according to basic medical ethics, since their only advantage over standard and safe egg donation is that the mother is genetically related to her child. This cannot justify the unknown risks to the child or the social consequences of allowing human genome modification" (Knapton, 9). Even with this statement, a majority of scientists believe the process should continue since it could lessen the harmful effects that mitochondrial disease has on a family.

Stephanie Saulter, a prominent author who wrote a series of books titled Evolution, offered her insight into the matter. She believes that the counterargument against the mDNA procedure has some merits, but inevitably not enough to stop the procedure. She believes that it is the “next logical step” that could save the lives of thousands from this devastating disease that is passed down genetically (Saulter, 16). Why should people object to a procedure that has the potential to save countless children from early death? Is it because of that word? Potential? Or is it because people are afraid of how far the technology will go? Are these fears worth the prohibition of a procedure that could save lives? Before anything can happen, long term research would need to occur as well as the money to conduct these procedures. As for being able to choose the eye and hair color of a child, it would be extremely expensive to invest time and money into the use of this technology (Saulter, 17).

Along with this comes the topic of diversity. Diversity is a trait that humans have begun to treasure and with ‘designer babies,’ people fear a loss of diversity. Christian Wolfe, who attended Washington & Jefferson University, states “Genetic diversity has a direct relation to the fitness and survivability of various species and populations; as genetic diversity decreases within a population, so does the fitness and survivability of that population” (Wolfe, 2). If designer babies were able to be engineered, then a detrimental effect could happen in the future for the human race. Humans have constantly had to be able to adapt to the environment that they are in, and with genetic engineering, diversity could be lacking in humans. This could completely hinder or even stop the evolutionary process (Shimbo, 3). However, some believe that it is an odd fear since reproductive medicine nowadays is allowing more parents to have children who are their genetic descendants. This would allow for diversity to continue as people wouldn’t be customizing their offspring. (Saulter, 18).