... | | | | | Critical Thinking 11 June 2012 Final Project As technology advances and scientists carry on with everyday research in medicine, a new way of life is created. With simply a test tube and perfectly selected genes a family can welcome their designer baby to the world with open arms. Should parents screen for desirable genetic traits in their offspring? Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) also known as a designer baby is a genetic modification that is used to alter anything from gender to disease, even appearance, personality, and IQ. The Oxford Dictionary defines the term 'Designer Babies' as "a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics." According to Wall Street Journal, “PGD is a technique whereby a three-day-old embryo, consisting of about six cells, is tested in a lab to see if it carries a particular genetic disease. Embryos free of that disease are implanted in the mother's womb. Introduced in the 1990s, it has allowed thousands of parents to avoid passing on deadly disorders to their children.” Are you willing to pay the price to have this perfect child? Many do not but the few that do, fully support it. Despite the limited amount of knowledge and awareness of the potential threats that are to be had by going through with this procedure the desire to have the perfect child is in high...
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...advancement because of their ability to grow into almost any kind of cell” (Pros and Cons…). One of the main debates is between stem cell research and religious views. Some religions such as branches Christianity believe that obtaining and using embryonic stem cells is a sin and should not be used for research or otherwise. Even though I identify as a Christian, I believe that stem cells should be utilized, as long as an egg is not fertilized only for the use of stem cells. One reason many people don’t agree with embryonic stem cell research is that they believe that scientists use embryos that have started to develop into babies. This is a myth (UMichigan). Scientists fertilize an egg in a dish, and use it 5 days after the fertilization when the embryo only contains about 100 cells, none of which are specialized (UMichigan). The embryo is no larger than a period at the end of a sentence (UMichigan). This embryo, although beginning to form, has no heart, no spine, no limbs, and no systems (UMichigan). If this was known by more people, then many people may change their minds about stem cell research. The idea of embryonic stems being obtained from aborted fetuses is what many people think. Well this is a misconception. Embryonic stem cells are only from those embryos made up in dishes in fertility clinics (UMichigan). These are the left over embryos not needed during in vitro fertilization. According to Ronald Conte of Christian Planet, “Embryonic stem cells are...
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...Wanda Brewington Professor Maria Zaccaria Introduction to Ethics April 27, 2015 Outline THESIS: Is the use of stem cells favorable for healing and or curing human diseases more favorable for healing and or curing diseases more significant than the ethical concerns and arguments? I. What are stem cells? A) An unspecialized cell that can generate to one or more different types of specialized cells regenerated as blood or nerve cells. B) Stem cells are present in embryos and in tissues of adult organisms. II. How are stem cells used? A) Scientific Research B) Potential disease and treatment and or cures C) In vitro fertilization D) Cloning and Genetic Engineering III. Ethical concerns regarding stems cells. A) Scientific research perspective B) Political/Moral Ethics perspective C) Religious/Utilitarianism perspective IV. Conclusion | Stem Cells Risk or Benefit Since the introduction of DNA, scientists have researched many ways to treat and extinguish disease. One interesting way is through the use of stem cells. To get better understanding of stem cells, they are defined as non-specific biological cells capable of differentiating into specialized cells. Stems cells have a unique quality of developing and duplicating cells through the process of cell division. The distinctiveness of stem cells is that they are unspecialized, meaning...
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...Human Gender Selecting Jessica McIntosh Medical Office Management Dr. Bridget Kelly Bryant & Stratton ABSTRACT This paper aims to provide a concise review of the ethical issues that are commonly raised in the debate between non-medical sex selection and natural selection. Background information on sex selection technologies is provided, as is a description of the process regarding the medical procedure. Arguments for and against gender selection will be explained and compared and conclusions will be drawn. Included will be the pros and cons of gender selection. Finally, the views of people I know as well as my own. Aside from cases in which it is used to prevent an inherited disease more likely to strike one gender than the other, should parents be permitted to use technology that selects the gender of their children? One of the first pieces of information that parents receive about a newborn baby is its gender. The widespread use of ultrasound technology during pregnancy even allows many parents to find out whether their baby is male or female before it is born. In recent years, technology has enabled parents to go one step further. They can now, with a good chance of success, take steps to select the gender of their children. While gender selection is legal in the U.S., it has generated some controversy among the medical advisory groups that tackle questions of bioethics. For instance, although the sperm-separation method is widely endorsed for families...
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...stretched, or even created many types of technology to draw their plot lines around, and the movie Baby Mama does just that. Baby Mama is a film that presents something as serious as reproduction and the technologies involved in that, and make it hilarious and understandable to your average audience. Baby mama is a romantic comedy film released in 2008. It was written and directed by first time director Michael McCullers, staring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Greg Kinnear. The main character in the film is Tina Fey’s character, Kate. Kate is an intelligent single 37 year old woman who’s desperately looking to have a child. She attempts adoption but fails due to the fact that she is a single mother. She then picks a sperm donor and tries in-vitro fertilization nine times but does not manage to get pregnant; she finds out that her chances of conceiving a child is slim to none due to the unusual shape of her uterus. With the devastating news she decides to go through an agency for a surrogate mom. For $100,000 the agency finds a match name Angie (Amy Poehler). Angie is a working class high-school dropout. She’s similar to a child, with no sense of responsibility, eats junk food all day, and is very immature. This juvenile personality of...
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...implications, assisted reproduction also has some moral, social, and religious concerns coupled with some psychological and biological or genetic implications both to the conceived embryos and their mothers. It is not an overstatement to adduce that there are disastrous health implications and consequences associated with assisted reproduction, which more often than not are overlooked by physicians and those desperate for children. There are three main types of assisted reproduction namely – artificial insemination, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and surrogacy. The ethical concern of these procedures is that they are unnatural method of conception, creating life in the laboratory, and fertilizing more embryos than would be needed, which often leads to massive abortion. Creating “man-made human beings” could be morally and religiously unethical. Doing things unnaturally such as assisted reproduction could have some devastating consequences. For instance, in vitro fertilization usually comes with multiple births which are often accompanied by infant mortality, low birth weights,...
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...Nathan Johnson Persuasive Essay Human Cloning Cloning humans has recently become a possibility that seems much more realistic in today's society than it was twenty years ago. It is a method that involves the production of a group of identical cells or organisms that all derive from a single individual (Grolier 220). It is not known when or how cloning humans really became a possibility, but it is known that there are two possible ways that we can clone humans. The first way involves splitting an embryo into several halves and creating many new individuals from that embryo. The second method of cloning a human involves taking cells from an already existing human being and cloning them, in turn creating other individuals that are identical to that particular person. With these two methods almost at our fingertips, we must ask ourselves two very important questions: Can we do this, and should we? There is no doubt that many problems involving the technological and ethical sides of this issue will arise and will be virtually impossible to avoid, but the overall idea of cloning humans is one that we should accept as a possible reality for the future. Cloning humans is an idea that has always been thought of as something that could be found in science fiction novels, but never as a concept that society could actually experience. "It is much in the news. The public has been bombarded with newspaper articles, magazine stories, books, television shows, and movies as well as cartoons¨...
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...With the growing of scientific and technological advances today, it should come as no surprise that designer babies have now become a possibility. The term designer baby refers to how certain attributes of a baby can now be modified to our perceived advantage to create a perfect child. This, of course, is absurd, as these modifications will create ethical issues relating to fairness, harmful consequences, and morality human rights and justice, the dignity of an individual, issues of morality, religion, No baby has the option whether it wants to modified or not. For this reason, changing the genetic build of a baby is unfair and shameful. In the article "8 Most Notable Pros and Cons of Designer Babies” the author writes, "A baby will have...
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...found in multicellular organisms that can divide into many different specialized types of cells. The potential for these cells to divide into specialized cells is called potency. Stem cells can self produce, which makes them very useful in the medical field. The two categories of stem cells are embryonic and somatic. The embryonic stem cells are obtained from embryos form using in vitro fertilization. Somatic, or adult, stem cells are obtained from bone marrow, the heart, brain, and other parts of the adult body, but are very small in quantity, which makes them more difficult to obtain (‘Stem Cell Information”, 2009). Some say that stem cell research should not be carried out because of what their religion tells them. In my opinion, that is not valid enough of a reason to prevent the research from happening, because this is a field that has so much more to learn about, and could lead to very big medical breakthroughs. Others say, aside Thomas 2 from their religious beliefs, that it is just cruel to create these embryos in labs to use for medicine. While this does seem unethical, the pros outweigh...
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...Introduction We all know that designer babies are likely to become the 'thing' of the future. The rich will be able to change their child's eye color, hair color or possibly even how intelligent they are. Medicine will be able to advance to an all new high, with Downs syndrome, Huntiongton's disease and Tay-Sachs being all but distant memories. Designer babies Since the discovery of DNA in the late 1950's, the possibility of genetic modification of animals and plants has become a reality. The term designer baby refers to the genetic modification of the child in its early fetal life. The world of genetic modification has long moved on from the days of Dolly the Sheep. How is a designer baby created? * An embryo is created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF). * A single cell is removed from that embryo within the first 5 days of its creation. * The cell is genetically tested. * The parents decide whether to discard the embryo or implant it in the mother's womb. Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was the international, collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. All our genes together are known as our "genome." The Human Genome Project started in the 1980s as an organized effort to provide the information researchers need to understand the genetic basis of all disease. GINA is the first major federal law to come out of the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications portion of...
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...Designer Babies A couple just got married a few weeks ago, and they are looking for the perfect car. They go down to the dealership in hopes of finding their dream car. The couple gets there and continues to look around, when they find a Buick Enclave. It is brand new and looks nice, but it does not have everything they are looking for. A salesman comes over to ask if they need some assistance, and they tell the salesman they like the car but it just does not have all the things they are looking for. The salesman tells them it is not a problem; they can just special order the car if they wanted. The salesman brings them inside and hands them a list of options they are able to choose from. Color? Blue. Seats? Leather. DVD player? Heck yes! Seat warmers? Yes please. Chrome wheels? Of course. The salesman then sends the lists of options to the Buick Company so the couple’s car can be custom built. The couple is happy with the car they got to design themselves, but now it is time for them to have a child. The couple wants their child to be a girl, somewhat tall, with blonde hair, big blue eyes, and olive skin tone. They go to the doctors and the doctor tells them that it is possible for them to have their “dream child”. The couple is ecstatic and tells the doctor what they want. Nine months later they have themselves their perfect child. Scientists have already modified animals and crops, so why not babies? There are arguably positive and negative results...
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...Imagine a world without disease, or the need for transplants. Have you ever known someone who needed a new kidney, heart, or liver? How about someone with a rare blood type that desperately needed a transfusion after chemotherapy? These are all issue that could theoretically disappear through the use of stem cells. The pros of stem cell research outweigh the cons. So what exactly is a stem cell? A stem cell is a very versatile cell that has the remarkable ability to grow into almost any kind of cell that your body would need. Stem cells are able to effectively replace damaged cells in the body. Stem cells function as an internal repair system, dividing and multiplying without limit to replace other cells in the body while it is still alive. When a stem cell divides and replicates, the new cell that has been created has the ability to become another type of cell with a specific function. The new stem cell can also remain as a stem cell. When treating cancer with radiation therapy, more than just cancerous cells are destroyed. Dead cells from the brain, kidneys, lungs, liver and heart could be re-grown with the use of stem cells. It does not matter the type of injury sustained, or the disease that was contracted, stem cells have the ability to replace dead or faulty cells with new fully functioning healthy cells. Stem cells can even be used to effectively clone an organ for transplant. Stem cell research has the potential to do a lot of good in the medical environment...
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...traits, and even if they want them to be athletic or not. According to, (www.infertility.com), out of 1000 surveyed, 40% of people said they would pick the traits of their child. Only 9% seen something wrong with the idea of designer babies. I am going to tell you about what exactly is a designer baby, the pros, and the cons of having a designer baby.. The positives: Take the case of Cindy and John Whitley. Their first child died at the age of 9 months from a deadly genetic disorder called spinal muscular atrophy. Genetic analysis uncovered that the Whitley’s statistically had a 1 in 4 chance of creating a child with spinal muscular atrophy each time they conceived. Unwilling to risk having another child with the deadly disorder, the Whitley’s used PGD to conceive three children, all healthy. To start off with, designer babies aren’t easy to develop it takes a lot of knowledge. According to research done by scientist Keith Kleiner, “…Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis is used with in vitro fertilization to look at embryos for over 100 diseases before it is in the mother.” After seeing what embryos have diseases they then destroy them. Scientist use in vitro fertilization to fertilize the eggs with the sperm. It allows doctors to reduce that the child is born with a less of a chance with a disorder. Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis only allows good embryos back into the mother. In the future, scientists will be able to cure genetic diseases. However, the positives of designing...
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...Government in privately funded research labs. They have been doing stem cell research in order to find cures for cancer, diabetes, wound healing, digestive and kidney disease to name a few. Stem Cell Research Legislation Introduction Currently in the United States, the history of embryonic stem cell research has been bitterly debated since shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision regarding abortion under Roe v. Wade back in 1973 where abortion was legalized. Since then the various administrations have banned the use of tax dollars for research on embryos, fetuses, and embryonic or fetal tissue, while permitting research in the private sector. This restriction has made most research regarding infertility and treatment, including In vitro fertilization, into the private sector or overseas in the United Kingdom, China and Israel just to name a few of the country’s leading the field in research. Executive Orders Executive Order 13435—Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines in Ethically Responsible Ways was signed by President George W. Bush on June 27, 2007 under section 2 stated that the Director of Health and Human services, including the National...
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...legislative state of affairs is and where the law on stem cells in the United States should go in the future and why. Make sure you use ample research and cited sources to support your arguments but make sure to state your own opinion on the issues as well. Stem Cell Research TJ AS OF: 2/4/2009--Introduced. Stem Cell Research Improvement Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct and support research that utilizes human embryonic stem cells, regardless of the date on which the stem cells were derived from a human embryo. Limits such research to stem cells that meet the following requirements: (1) the stem cells were derived from human embryos donated from in vitro fertilization clinics, were created for the purposes of fertility treatment, and were in excess of the needs of the individuals seeking such treatment; (2) prior to donation, it was determined that the embryos would never be implanted in a woman and would otherwise be discarded; and (3) the individuals seeking fertility treatment donated the embryos with written informed consent and received no financial or other inducements. Requires the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to issue guidelines on research involving human embryonic stem cells. Authorizes the Director to issue guidelines on research involving other human stem cells, as scientifically warranted. Provides for updates of guidelines under this Act. Directs the Secretary...
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