A New Era: Designer Babies

Part One: Background


Doctors today have access to advanced reproductive technologies that allow them to screen embryos for genetic disorders, as well as testing techniques that can predetermine a baby’s sex. While technologies and treatments in medicine are constantly making headway, concern in rising about the further development of embryo prescreening. Attributes ranging from height to hair and eye color, and potentially even the IQ, will soon likely be susceptible to prescreening. If gene therapy continues to progress at such a rapid pace, parents will be able to “design their baby” by inserting the genes that they want and weeding out any undesirable traits.


It was 1953 when Francis Crick and James Watsons uncovered the structure of DNA. Their groundbreaking conclusion proved that the DNA molecule exists in the form of a double helix. People waited anxiously with antipathy and excitement for the day when babies could be custom designed. Most prospective parents anticipated the possibility of lower health risks free of inherited diseases due to embryo screening. Now the beginnings of the day of designer babies have finally come.


The idea of a “perfect child” physically, emotionally, socially and even mentally stems as far back to the days when people desired to create a society that would procreate babies in order fulfill their idea of a “superior race.” In the times of the holocaust, the world saw the rise of “Aryans,” the Germans. This “superior race” represented themselves as hardworking, courageous, and honest while portraying the Jews as evil and cowardly. By the end of 1934 Hitler had absolute control of Germany, and the Nazis were claiming that Jews corrupted pure German culture with their “foreign” and “mongrel influence. The word Aryan is derived from the study of linguistics, and at some point they determined that their “languages were superior in their structures, variety and vocabulary.” The Aryans argued that the Semites (those descending from Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic backgrounds) and their languages were inferior to the Aryans, therefore concluding that the Aryans were better than the Semitics. The Nazi view of the “superior race” evolving through physical attributes such as blonde hair and blue eyes is closely correlated with this Designer baby phenomenon.