Firstly, I would like to introduce the quote that I try to live my life by. It was first brought to me during the summer of 2009 when I was depressed about a rather unfortunate athletic injury. My mommy tried pretty much everything she could do in attempts to cheer me up, but I was just bitter and angry about life and couldn’t be bothered. One day as I was checking my e-mail, I saw that she had sent me a link to some inspirational video as she tends to do rather often. It was from there that I discovered some food for thought that helped me get through the summer and even now, still has a heavy influence in my life on a day-to-day basis. As stated by Vivian Greene:
“Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass,
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
http://www.danceintherainmovie.com/miami/
You may be thinking that I’ve gotten extremely off topic talking about dancing in the rain and whatnot, but if you take time to ponder over the quote, you’ll see how it relates to A LOT in life, and even this whole “designer babies” ordeal.
In life, you may not always get dealt the perfect hand, but you A L W A Y S need to learn how to make the best of it. We’ve all said something about wishing we were better, smarter, “cooler”, prettier, more popular, etc.. but that’s not what life is about. Instead of dwelling on our imperfections waiting for the story to pass, we need to make the best of what we were given by God, and appreciate everything that we have, making the best of our situations dancing in the rain. Get it now?
ANYWAYYSSS, back to these “perfect babies” *eyeroll.. I truly believe that the capability of humans to modify genes is an incredible scientific breakthrough, but I am 100% against it. No one is perfect or SHOULD be perfect, so why are humans trying so hard to make it this way? “Everything happens for a reason”, and I think that altering genes goes against this saying, which in my opinion is immoral and ethically wrong.
The ability that humans are being presented with to create their perfect offspring is actually pretty depressing. What’s wrong with just taking what you get and understand that all babies are blessings from God? I do understand that the purpose of genetic modification is initially to cure diseases and reduce suffering found with hereditary disorders (such as Huntington’s chorea, Cystic Fibrosis, and Muscular Dystrophy) but let’s be logical here. We live in a competitive and shallow world and that’s just what it is sorry for the reality check to anyone who thinks otherwise. When people realize that there are ways to have the best, smartest, prettiest, fastest ;), healthiest, etc.. babies, this priviledge will be most certainly be abused and if you think otherwise please find the nearest exit from the bubble you’ve been living in. Even if the intentions of some are genuine, modifying genes is just wrong on so many levels. Children are gifts from God and should be loved unconditionally regardless.
Usain Bolt; The fastest man EVERR! Point #1: If this man was genetically manipulated he would not have, nor would he deserve the amount of recognition he has now. Point #2: He wasn't genetically altered and look how well it worked out for him.
As mentioned previously, modifying the genes of children is not just for cosmetic purposes, but was intended for medical purposes as well. I can admit that I do see the principle behind the idea of genetic modification, but I do not think that there are enough reasons to justify it. In 2004 I was told that one of my closest family members was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is said that cancer is heredity and is caused by a genetic mutation. In this case, altering a specific gene could potentially save lives and could have saved a particular one of my family members a lot of pain. With this in mind, there hasn’t been a history of cancer for many generations prior, which brings up the mystery of where the disease came from. This has given me my “everything happens for a reason” attitude towards a lot in life. Gene therapy could have helped my family member and many other people coping with this fatal disease, but in return, her diagnosis of has only made her, as well as the rest of my family a lot stronger. Even after being personally touched by the effects of heredity disorders, my opinion towards “designer babies” remains the same.
Okay... Can we just be realistic for 2 seconds?! Before considering this the greatest and most useful scientific advance, we need to stop being so naive and pause ever so briefly to consider the moral and ethnic limits of society. Modifying the genes of future generations is just a horrible idea. Everything given to us at birth is a gift, and we should appreciate whatever we have. Instead of considering how we could be closer to perfect, we have to be satisfied with who we are. The only way you can get close to perfection if there is even such a thing, is through the knowledge that comes from age. Learning and making your own mistakes makes you a wiser person, which is something to be valued. Everything that happens is for a reason, and by alternating genes to avoid such happenings ultimately makes the subjects “superhuman”. Designer babies are N O T humans!! They’re N O T natural and are practically lab experiments!!
Designer baby! ^^ (no seriously.. why can't I just alter my genes so my children can fly..)
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the best word to describe the people who partake in genetic mutation would be ignorant. Genetic manipulations are immoral and ethically wrong on SOOO many levels. Am I any less of a person because I have natural brown eyes, as opposed to a child that has genetically manipulated blue eyes? Am I any less of a person because I have as bad eyesight? Asthma? Long legs? DIDN’T THINK SO! Soooo really people, just deal with what you are given, take it as a blessing from above, and learn to “dance in the rain” while you're at it.
http://medicineworld.org/cancer/page15.html
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://encefalus.com/general/dark-knight-psychology/
I mean c’moooon.. I wasn’t genetically mutated and look how great I turned out :)
