In “Genetic engineering”, Francis Fukuyama argues that in the future people may be able to create “designer babies” by choosing chromosomes for their gender, hair, eye color etc. Human culture depicts constant drive for perfection in all aspects of life. People are determined to achieve the best jobs, the best homes, and the best form of “living”. Advancement in medicine and science has allowed potential parents to genetically screen for preferred traits in their fetus. Genetic engineering for traits that are hazardous to the child’s health is understandable, however it seems unethical to screen for “superficial” traits and desired characteristics for one’s child.
The skin color, hair color, eye color and other physical traits of a child are only outside traits that do not reflect the abilities of that child. Why not allow that child to develop traits of the natural world. By prescreening for certain desirable traits, parents will ultimately lean towards certain characteristics that will eliminate variation and individuality. People are connected by the fact that everyone was born with a set of attributes that one must learn to understand and live with. If someone is given the power to create the basic foundations of another being, eventually the created person has a chance of never finding a true value of life.
While it may sound ideal to some to have the opportunity to alter an already developing fetus into a “designer baby”, it could possibly be harmful to that fetus. By altering an organism’s genetic makeup it could also affect how the organism reacts to other beings as well as opening the door to other complications. “One would presumably not want to create and human baby until one had a much greater chance of success, and even then the cloning process might produce defects that wouldn’t show up for years”(676)
Life was originally created and terminated by nature. Manipulating genetic make-up is an attempt to create life for convenience with seemingly...