CAJ #8: My mum is not happy about this!

I deliberately chose to talk to my religious, not-very-fond-of-technology mum about the highly controversial topic of Designer Babies. My sister was in the same room but did only join my laughter and, well, it was quite a fun discussion!

I began to explain that I am currently working on a journal to learn more about this advanced technology that is used to “design” a baby outside the mother’s body. I tried, as simple as possible, to explain the procedure known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis and that through this and in-vitro fertilization, doctors are given the chance to genetically modify embryos to reduce genetic disorders. She immediately remembered the movie we once watched together in which a girl was ‘created’ to help keep her older sister alive. So I asked her what she thought of this technology and she wasn’t entirely against it. She actually thought it was great because it can prevent unborn children from having genetic diseases. She also added that it is a wonderful opportunity for infertile couples. Then I continued telling her that this technology is far more advanced than most of us realize and that in the not too distant future, it will be possible to preselect all sorts of traits and qualities to create perfect human beings. She asked what I meant and I elaborated and told her that parents, wealthy parents in particular, will most certainly be able to choose traits such as height, longevity, appearances, etc., just like it is already possible to select the gender. “What are they teaching you at this university?” were her exact words. After my sister and I had finished laughing, I told her that this gender selection is really possible due to the fact that only the X and Y chromosome needs to be identified. She couldn’t really believe it, but got really angry and said that this is not natural anymore and that god is the only one who decides the gender and the other traits. I decided to defend this concept of designer babies and asked her further why she thought that this isn’t acceptable but that it is okay for babies to be born without diseases. Why shouldn’t parents have the chance to provide their children with the very best? She couldn’t quite present some objective arguments because she kept saying that it is simply not right to create a baby the way you want it since having a baby is a miracle by god and that scientists have no business interfering with that. I argued that god created the earth and everything in it and that he wanted us to profit from it all, so why shouldn’t we benefit from this advanced technology as well? She starred at me and asked what was wrong with me and if I now consider doing that someday. It went on like this for a couple of minutes with my sister and I laughing even more as my mum told my dad, who had just arrived home, that we had gone crazy and wanted to interfere with god’s creation.

This conversation proved that this growing trend of designer babies will certainly cause a lot of controversy. I honestly don’t know yet what to think of it all, but since I have been reading a lot on this topic lately, I now see things from other perspectives and have therefore become more open minded.