The question I researched for the wonder project was ”Should we be able to change the DNA of our unborn children”
Studies have shown that if you really wanted you could design your baby, their hair colour up to their intelligence and their personality. You can choose to remove all possible chances of your child developing a disability in the womb, by making sure that their genetic code is a repeated pattern, and that there are no defects with the lettering.
But how is it possible ?
well here is a basic explanation by Jessica Berg
”For a number of years now we have had the ability to alter genetic material in a cell, using a technique called CRISPR. The DNA that makes up our genome comprises long sequences of base pairs, each base indicated by one of four letters. These letters form a genetic alphabet, and the “words” or “sentences” created from a particular order of letters are the genes that determine our characteristics. Sometimes words can be “misspelled” or sentences slightly garbled, resulting in a disease or disorder. Genetic engineering is designed to correct those mistakes. CRISPR is a tool that enables scientists to target a specific area of a gene, working like the search-and-replace function in Microsoft Word, to remove a section and insert the “correct” sequence.”
But should everyone have access to it?
“If nobody gets hurt, and everyone has access to it, says Hughes, than genetic modification is perfectly fine, and restricting it is an assault on reproductive fredom”
Do I think everyone should have access to it?
I Personally believe that no one should have access to it because if you went through the trouble of choosing whether you would like children, and if you really wanted a child that bad you would accept them for who they are, fetus implantation, with the strategy of genetic modification can be anywhere from 100,000 – 1 million dollars. It is proven that kids who were genetically modified have social struggles, they might feel undervalued, and it may feel as though the parents genetically modified you because you weren’t good enough, and you may feel like you are not their 100% children. Which can end up causing more issues in the future.
With doing the research of this question, I have realized that I have many questions on this subject, and I would love to do more research on it in the future. Some of the questions I have are
- what if you receive a fetal genetic modification implantation and the pregnancy goes wrong (miscarriage) could you get your money back?
- what happens if the baby doesn’t survive birth?
I have learned a lot while researching this project, to answer my question of “is it/should it be possible to change the DNA of our unborn child?” the answer is yes, it is possible, but while doing my research i have decided I think that for the future of you unborn child you should not use genetic implantation, because in the long run it can make life for you child not as pleasant as it could be
In conclusion I have learned that ”designer” babies is a term being used in our everyday life.Some doctors think it is a completely harmless procedure that can be performed for all parents who would like to design their future children.
Part 2: ADL 10 refelction
what questions did you have to research in order to research your question
I had to search up a lot of different websites, where I found a lot of things, the main ones was that subject that I chose is a very byest topic and opinions were heavily influenced in the source My main question was Should we be able to change the dna of our unborn children, but to refine my question I needed to do research on google to get a bit of an understanding of what I was getting myself into.
what new or familiar tools did you try to use as you worked through this project
I learned how to use the schools resources (through class websites) and I learned how to refine my google searches so I can choose exactly what comes up as a result using the + and – to cut out the parts i .
what was the process you used to investigate your topic
I first had to break the question down into parts because if I were to just google my question I would get 1 answer, when in fact I want multiple opinions stating multiple things, I made sure to try to stay away from heavy opinions because that is only one persons opinion, not backed up by research
how did you verify and cite the information you found
I made sure that the website had an author and a publication date. Another thing I did was if there were a lot of ads I would not use the site, because credible sources do not have ads.
how did the process of completing this challenge go, what could you have done better
One thing that I could have done better is to spend more time writing the blog post, because I used my opinion when I should have just included information instead.
Websites:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/30/designer.babies/index.html
Scientists alter human embryo DNA: does this open the door for designer babies?
http://theconversation.com/editing-human-embryos-with-crispr-is-moving-ahead-nows-the-time-to-work-out-the-ethics-81732
https://www.pregnancymagazine.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/build-better-baby
Video:
video my nature video
Bibliography:
Image 1: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/30/13164064/crispr-cas9-gene-editing picture by Brad Plumer, Javier Zarracina, Eliza Barclay, Julia Belluz, and Umair Irfan
Image 2: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-bulletin/news/crispr-implications-for-materials-science picture by: Phillip Ball