HAS TECHNOLOGY GONE TOO FAR?

The Fertility institues recently introdused to people the opportunity to screen their embryos not only for diseases and gender, but also for physical characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and complexion. The Fertility Institutes proudly claims this is "just the tip of the iceberg", and that they are planning to offer developed ways that will enable the parents to decide what kind of child they want.Even though there are numerous couples flocking in to costomize their babies, there are contraversies and opposition that is argued on the  grounds of morality and ethinicity.Designer babies is the term used by journalits to describe the fear that we may be able to use genetic technologies to modifiy not only genetic deseases, but also to choose the the cosmetic and genetical charecterstics. Designer babies is the terms only used by jounalist. Scientist call it Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD).

 2004 directed the term "designer babies" from sceince fiction movie and weblogs into the Oxford English dictionary where it is defined as "a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic enginering in combination with vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics.” This coinage was promoted by recent advances in genetics that may make such babies possible. the question that challenges the world today is moral or ethical limits, if any, should apply to the selection of our children’s genes and charecterstics.

HOW IS A DESIGNER BABY CREATED?

The creation of a designer baby starts when the enbryo is made by combining a sperm cell and an egg cell in vitro fertilization, which is the process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the womb, in vitro. A single cell is removed from the embryo within the first five days of its creation to be tested genetically. Through these testings the parents will come to know the genetical disorders and any other problems their future child might face. During this stage the sceintist can also decide to make any changes that the  parents want to make before the embryo is implanted into the mother's womb.

PROS OF DESIGNER BABIES

Genetic screening can reduce the baby's chances of being born with several serious diseases like Down Syndrom, Famial hypercholesterolemia, rare blood disorders such as Diamond Blackfan Anaemia, etc. This process also prevents women from having to decide whether to abort an abnormal fetus, and eliminates the sadness and economic difficulties that many families are forced to cope with. In the future, the new technologies may offer parents the possibility to “enhance” their children. As more and more genes are discovered to be associated with specific functions, parents could potentially examine the genetic makeup of their fetuses,and modify them by making changes in their embryonic stem cells. This could enhance a child’s mental and physical abilities, from being taller to having the potential to master music and chess. Most parents simply want their children to be the best. With new genetics, their dreams may finally be fulfilled. The new technology may take out the out the boundaries of different classes whether it is social, econonmic or personal.

CONS OF DESIGNER BABIES

This new method of modifiing the genetic charecterticts of a baby is used to screen embryos for any genetic disease and only the disease free embryos are implanted into the mother's womb. However, the technique is not limited to screening for genetic and hereditary disorders, but is also used for cosmetic reasons. Parents can choose the gender, eye, skin and hair color of the baby. Various other physical traits such as intelligence, beauty, height, stopping a chancesof accuiring  obesity, freedom from mental illnesses, athletic ability, etc. can be also determined. The adoption of genetic engineering for cosmetic reasons; for genetic enhancements has spearheaded a lot of controversies. People have started asking, "Is it ethical to create designer babies with enhanced physical ability and appearance?" Stephen Green, the National Director of Christian Voice said, "The objection to the idea of designer babies is that it divorces procreation from the act of sexual congress, and there's a real sense in which it is playing God." Critics point out that the level of biodiversity in the human race will plummet, which can result in long term disaster.Adolf Hitler was on a quest to create a race of Aryan Blond, blue eyed and tall people. Creating designer babies is believed to be on the same affect on the world. The arrival of designer babies will effect biodiversity. Moreover, traits decided by parents, eliminates the say of the child in his or her life. Parents passionate about sports would have the athletic ability engineered into the child, however, the child may not want the same. This reduces the child's freedom to choose and be an individual.

CONCLUSION

The development of genetic engineering is a big step towards the imporvment of the technological world. Using his kind of technology to help children who will not survive due to genetical disorders will put smiles on millions of parent around the world. Many lives can be saved because of this technology.On the other hand, if this technology is misused for cosmetic means, it could challenge the biodiversity. It could also chanllenge the faith of many people in God. I think, the option for have a designer baby should only be open or provided to parents who know that the life of their child will encounter problems that will make life hard for their them. For example, parents who know that their child will have a genetic disorder such as Huntington's chorea, Cystic Fibrosis or Muscular Dystrophy. I hope that the development of this technology will wisely improve life by eliminating deaths of many young children.

SOURCES

http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://www.jesussavior.com/End%20of%20the%20World/Genetics20%nightmare/designer_babies.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies.html

SOURCE

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/277/5325/494

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4228411.stm

http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/ozonelayer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

GLOBAL WARMING AND BIODIVERSITY

Many scientist consider humans as the most invasive species, as human can greatly change an environment and impact living things that reside there. Are we being stewards of the world? Take a look at an issue in which human inervention has positive or negative effect the biodiversity of our ecosystem.


The life on Earth today have been endagered and altered by the actions of humans. Human alteration to the Earth is substantial and growing. About one-third of the land's surface area has been transformed by human activity. The concentration of greenhouse gasses have increased 30% since the beginning of industrial revolution orginating problems such as global warming. Global warming blazes dasators such as the melting of the ice caps in the North and Southern poles, changing the Earth's temperature, destruction of the ozone layer, extinction of species, various deaseases and plagues.All these problems affect the biodiversity of the planet as all species are conneted to each other through food webs.


More than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity. Humans pollute the world by adding the factory wates, fertilizers and organic wates in to river, lake or any other water body. This affects the aquatic life and then through the food web the whole life in the biospere. Many aquatic, land and air species have gone into extinction because we pollute the land, water and air by toxics and other form of pollutants.

Moreover, the melting of the ice caps in the Northern and the Southern poles should not be taken as a light concern by the global population. Over the past five years, studies have found that melting Antarctic ice caps contribute at least 15% to the current global sea level rise of 2mm in a year. It is thought that over 13,000 sq km of sea ice in the Antarctic Peninsula has been lost over the last 50 years. Melting in the Antarctic Peninsula removes sea ice that once held back the movement of glaciers. As a result, glaciers flow into the ocean up to six times faster than before. If this pattern continues, the Earth could be swallowed by the oceans in about 50 years. All the more, it means that the species in living in the North, such as penguins and Polar bear are endangered because they cannot adapt to the changing environment conditions and the also becuase they are loosing their land on which they live, walk and prey to sustain thier life.

Change in temperature is another issuse that should disturb our peace and influence us to take action. Global warming is increasing the Earth's temperature constantly. The Earth's temperature increased from 0.74 degree celsius to 0.18 degree celsius in the last century. This cause enormouse problems such as the extiction of certain spieces who cannot adapt with the rising temperatures. The extictions causes problems such as the increase in population in certain species while the decrease of population of the other; causing disruption in the food web. For example, if a number of Giraffe's die, their predators, the lions, will suffer scarcity for food and die eventually. However, the plants that the Grirafee's eat will rapidly increase in number. This causes distrubace to the balance of the earth and challenge the biodiversity of the Earth.

The Ozone layer is an area in the Stratosphere that abrobs 97-99% of the suns ultraviolet radiation which is potentially damaging to life on earth. Every 1% decrease in the earths ozone shield is projected to increases the amount of UV light exposure to the lower atmosphere by 2%. This information should bring up concerens in every human mind as the Ozone layer is depleating due to the actions of mankind. This deplation affects the health of all in the biosphere the increase of skin cancer in the world today is because our bodies are more exposed to Ultra violet radiation. The health of animals are also challenged. Frogs are amphibians that even lived through the ice age, yet they are endangered today because they are affect by the toxic in water and air as well as UV radiations. This is a very negatively affect on the biodiversity of the Earth, as more and more animals are entered into the endangered list.

We are supposed to be the stewrads of the Earth, yet we have acted to destroy our planet. If we don't act against our own action and correct the mistakes that we have made, we will cause suffering for our future generations and deplete the biodiversity of our beautful planet. The destruction of biodiversity means the detruction of our planet. Our Earth will no longer be a friend. We can rectify our mistake by starting to do simple things like taking the bus to school instead of our cars, walking to close by places, recycleing, reusing and reducing garbage. We can still help our Earth recuperate if we work together and live with consideration towards the environment and all the life in it.