Amy and Kif have decided they want to bring a child into this world. Having a child changes a couple lives forever. They have to think of someone else needs before their own. Having a child can be scary because you cannot predict anything about him or her. So when Amy and Kif heard about genetic screening they thought it was a wonderful idea. They are in interested in the idea of eugenics. Eugenics is selective breeding for the best people possible. Why not pick the exact traits of your baby? Sounds like a great idea to people that have not done their research about this topic.
With the use of modern technology, doctors can do this with genetic screening. Couples should not be able to use genetic screening should not be allowed because of how it will affect society as a whole. People can genetically change their children in the womb. Parents will pick traits that they believe will be best for their children. People will pick traits that will make their children the best people possible. Parents will make their children be smart, kind, respectful, attractive looking and honest are just some of the many examples parents would want their children to be like.
With the idea of this more and more couples are using the idea to genetically create their children. Another reason, parents are genetically creating their children is to avoid life-threating diseases. If you knew you were a carrier for life-threating diseases that you could pass to your children. For example, Huntington’s Disease if both parents pass it on to their offspring and it could kill your child at a very young age. There are different arguments to why people do not agree with the idea of eugenics.
One of the arguments that bioconservation puts out there with the idea of eugenics is that the idea of it is wrong. They see bio-enhancements are wrong and people should not mess with them. They focus on four different arguments that are against the idea of eugenics. One of the bioconservation arguments focuses is on the idea of unpredictable results. You could ask for your kid to be born with blue eyes but when the baby is born it has brown eyes. Sometimes even when you select the correct genes of the person sometimes things do not work out.
The genetics sometimes take over and override what you expected to happen. Also, sometimes the person that selected the genes could have selected the wrong set of genes and that could change the results you expected. Another argument of bioconservation is how will these genetically created people will affect this world. If people start to eliminate traits in the human population that people do not see as worthy, then how will it affect this world? If everyone is genetically created in the world to be nice and kind how would that affect the world? Would this allow for world peace to occur?
Another example is if we create a generation that is more understanding what happen to the world? Racism could possibly become a thing of the past, but other possible problems could come out of this. Racism could become worse than before because people could become more judgmental if their parents pick those specific traits for them. Another reason couple should not be allowed to genetically screen their child because these could dramatic effects. If we start to eliminate traits that we think are unwanted or undesirable what will our world look like in 20 years?
It would get rid of a person’s ability to create an identity for themselves. Another argument of not allowing couples to genetically create their children is how it will affect society. Everyone is most likely going to be picking traits and qualities for their children that would be positive traits. For example, they would want your kid to be nice, kind, patient, and smart. If everyone in a society was the same it would allow for it to become a utopian society at first. This is because everything in this society would be perfect. Everyone would be nice and in our eyes be “perfect” however, fter time this society would lead to a dystopian society.
This society would lead to unhappy and unpleasant people. It would create a society that could be described as frightening or undesirable that no one would want to live in. If we started to genetically create the people we would end up living in a dystopian world. Why would anyone want to want to place themselves in a life of misery. Another argument of the bioconservation is the idea of born vs made. When a child is born you do not know what to expect. You do not know what color their eyes will be or the color of their hair.
As the child gets older you learn more about their qualities that make them who they are. You will see if they smart, kind, caring, or even if they have a temper. It will be a learning process between the parent and child over both of their lifetimes. However, when you genetically create a human you know everything to expect. When the child is born you know exactly what to expect out of them. You know their intelligence level already; you know the color of their hair already before they are even born. You know everything about this person before they are even born.
There is nothing to learn about them or discover about them. So does this take away from being a person? It does because the child is a made thing. You know everything about something that is made. You are not left with any surprises to discover. The last argument bioconservation presents that generically creating a person gets you religious battle. You are not God and were not given the gift or the ability to create human life. In different religion, people believe that only god can create human lives. By creating a person in a “test tube” is not what religious people believe in.
As stated before in the religious believer’s eyes only God is able to create a life. God creates human that in his eyes are going to better the world. The point of God creating life is he knows exactly your plan and exactly what your life is going to be. When you genetically create people it is going against God’s plan. God creates you with the traits he wants you to have when you add and take away traits it is messing with his plan. Another reason that genetic screen should not be done the traits and appearances are being selected by the parent of the child.
When the child grows up they may wish they were born with different eye color for example. But you as the parent were the ones that selected the eye color for your child. Now they have to live blue eyes for the rest of their life. You are creating an unhappy environment for your child and causing them to possibly lower their self-esteem level about their appearance. Also, parents have to be happy with the choices they made for their child. The parents of the child cannot be disappointed with the traits they selected for their child when they grow up and show the traits that were selected for them.
The bioconservation argument presents several different reasons why couples should not be allowed to genetically screen their child. They first present the idea that the bio enhancement you have selected could not happen in the way you wanted it to. This has to do with the idea that genetically screening is unpredictable. They also wonder how changing all these people genetically will affect the world. This could lead to more critical people than before. They also discuss the idea of parents only picking positive traits for their future children.
This concept could lead to what would look like a utopian society, but would later turn into the dystopian society. Another idea the bioconservation argument puts forward the difference between something made and something made. Something born you know exactly how they are going to turn on and what they will be like. A made thing you already know exactly what they are like. You know all their physical and their traits that make them who they are already. The last part the bioconsevation argument focus on that genetically creating your child is against the idea of God.
In most religions, God is the symbol of creation and when you are creating your child that goes against the idea of God the creator. Other reasons you should not create your child using science is because of the affecting of our surrounding world and how is will affect your child. When they find out you created them using science how will they react? Will they be happy/satisfied with what you choose for them? With all the ideas presented in this paper, couples should think twice before deciding to “create” their children.