A Brief Introduction 

This project is all about genetics and mental illness. We went through the science behind mental illness. Alyssa, Aurora and I, also known as A cubed, decided on this question after having watched a TED talk called “The Ethical Dilemma of Designer Babies”. This video made us think and want to know more on this topic. There were loads of questions that popped up during our brainstorms and discussion. We took it upon ourselves to find something that covered everything or at least most of, what we wanted to learn. Enjoy this project, brought to you by A Cubed.

DEFINE: Outline the specifics of the problem.

As I stated in my brief introduction, we came upon our question after watching a TED talk. This TED talk spoke about the ethics involved with genetically modifying children. After reflecting more on this we found that all of us were fairly interested in the mental illness side of things. Through the process of trial and error, we attempted to come up with a question that would really make us think. We went through this process for a little while and started to edit our question which were deemed too simple. We ended up with a question that made us have to reflect and in some ways read between the line; How are genetically modified children at risk of mental illness?
DISCOVER: Question and Investigate the issue. What are the underlying issues? Who is affected? What stances have certain countries taken on the issue? What other questions need to be researched to get the information needed to take a stand?

Our issue was how genetically modified children are at the risk of mental illness. During our brainstorms, we found that there were many underlying issues. These underlying issues were about the process and the margins for error. This issue affects everyone. The possibility of genetically modified children in nothing but increasing. With new scientific discoveries happening every day, this is not going to just go away. People need to wake up and do something about this issue.

Believe it or not, not all countries have rules and/or bans regarding the genetic modification of humans. Many countries have passed legislation banning human reproductive cloning, including Australia, Austria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. Approximately 46 countries have formally banned human cloning. While encouraging, this represents less than a quarter of all countries.

To allow people to confidently take a stand, we need to ask a lot more questions. Here a few that come to mind: What rules, regulations or bans should countries imply? How are we going to make sure the genetic modification of humans will be used for good? Why should we or should we not allow it? Why would this be a good or bad idea? There are probably so many more questions that need to be answered before this issue can be resolved or at least contained.

DELIVER: Share your opinion though an infographic. Use a format that is as effective as possible. Include media that gets your ideas across

At the end of the process, I feel that this infographic meets the criteria. I strongly feel this way because our infographic has a lot of relevant information. This information was researched and checked profusely for any errors. The images are not just anything. Aurora is an amazing artist and it was a privileged to work with her (and Alyssa). Aurora drew everything for us. The images were as relevant as could be because we had someone draw them rather than looking for what we wanted. As a whole, this project is so aesthetically pleasing.

DEBRIEF: Reflect on quality of the product and the process you went through.

The quality of this product is great in my opinion. I’m very proud of my work and the work of my group. Through the way we were collaborating, we were able to make a project that we all were proud of. Through collaborative investigation and by using quality resources, we profusely researched and came up with the information we needed. As for the images we used and putting everything together, Aurora was our creative visionary. As stated above, all images were drawn by Aurora. While she was drawing, Alyssa and I were in charge of finding which bits of information we wanted in the project. We went through everyone’s research to find the best information that would be the most effective for communicating our ideas. There is something that stopped this project from being phenomenal; we couldn’t find an amazing answer to our question. Though, we answered it the best we could, I feel that we could have done better, given more time and more resources.

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