Should we 'design' our children?

 In the news recently there has been much debate following a recent court case as to whether it should be legal to terminate a pregnancy of a would-be down syndrome child far later than that of a would-be child that would not have such condition. Whilst this topic has sparked discussion in and of itself I think the  general notion that parents should be able to choose to terminate a child with a certain illness or (so-called) disadvantage (despite the would-be child still having the ability to maintain an acceptable and often good quality-of-life) also leads to another interesting debate. That is whether we should genetically engineer foetus'. 

Indeed, it is plausible, due to technologies which already exist, that science could progress to allow one to genetically alter a foetus within the womb to have certain characteristics. Indeed it seems like designer babies could be in our future, that is a baby whose characteristics were genetically altered pre-birth to make it immune to diseases, more intelligent or stronger for example. Some believe that it is a good moral call to 'design' your baby. For example, they believe that if your child were to be born with asthma that we should alter the foetus to remove such a genetic issue so that it can live a richer life which may involve a sporting career it could not otherwise have.

 Of course allowing genetic engineering to progress to the point of designer babies becoming a reality is seemingly very dangerous. Firstly it would negatively impact current society. One significant concern regards the impact on the health care system, as if the new, genetically engineered, generations lack any disabilities and hold a stronger immune systems, cures for many diseases would no longer be needed.  Medical research is funded on the basis that it will help those suffering from the illnesses with the added benefit that treatments will have utility for generations to come. As such research could potentially be reduced as genetically engineered generations would have no use for such treatments. A form of injustice would be brought to non-designer generations as they may have a life of suffering or die when a cure may have been produced in their life time if the funding had remained the same.

Furthermore, it is unlikely that the designer baby technology would become available to everyone instantly, instead a form of economic injustice could manifest within society causing discrimination due to varying financial classes. Technology to create designer babies and to select the best qualities, would likely be priced at a high rate. Indeed, state of the art and non-essential treatments for illnesses such as bionic implants as well as regular birthing treatments like IVF already cost thousands or millions of pounds and are independent of free healthcare. If only certain groups, such as the elite, could afford to genetically engineer their child greater discrimination would form. This would produce a generation where there are children who are considered 'perfect' in general societies eyes, leaving those who are imperfect to be bullied and discriminated against. This would also worsen the class divide as rich children would not only have wealth advantages but would also be designed to have intellectual capacities which would allow them to obtain the best jobs, making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Another issue with genetically altering foetus' is that there is no indication as to where to ‘draw the line’. Indeed, designer babies could create a generation of children whom all look vastly similar as if the technology becomes available to design your child's features, the general beauty standards of a society could affect the way the would-be parents design their child. This may cause various biological side effects when it comes to future procreation due to their genetic makeup being too similar. More importantly, designing foetuses could eliminate society’s individuality, instead creating clones, removing our personality and our differences which would result in a loss of creativity and original ideas. This is especially worrying as oppressive regimes could force would-be-parents to design babies specifically for certain positions in society, so that their country would run more efficiently, thus not only denying the child the right to individuality but a right to freedom.  

Indeed as I have expressed quite clearly here the prospect of technology evolving to allow us to genetically engineer foetus to completely design babies is a scary one. As whilst it could be a positive to remove illnesses from a foetus which would cause extreme suffering (such as Huntington's disease) to allow any genetic engineering beyond that point puts us on a slippery slope which leads to a world full of designer children which in turn will negatively effect society greatly.