Is "Designing" babies ethical? Life Sciences Essay (Essay Sample)

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Why It Is Not Ethical to “Design” Babies
“Designing” babies by editing their DNA to “improve” them has ignited debate concerning whether it is ethical or not. The aim of this essays is to contribute to this debate and will argue that “designing” babies is unethical because it does not seek the baby’s consent, can cause stigmatization of individuals with genetic disorders, and destroy the relationship between children and their parents.
Gene editing on infants is not ethical because it does not consult the child whose genetic composition is going to be edited and may result in harmful effects in the long run. Coller states in his article discussing the ethics of genome editing that there is “a potential for all future generations of the offspring… to be affected by the edit, without their consent or the consent of their parents” (295). Gene editing denies children the opportunity to either consent or reject to the procedure, which might result in the development of other genetic disorders that are hereditary. Such eventualities make “designing” babies unethical. Nevertheless, there are other reasons why this procedure is immoral.