My son the athlete

When your first child is born you wonder, what are they going to be like when they grow up. The typical American family wants a beautiful daughter, athletic son, intelligence. This is what scientists are still working on, to be able to fully design your child. If you want your baby to be smart they will be able to do that.

Having a baby is going to be like picking out furniture. "I'd like my son to be tall and athletic please." Since when did it become an option to choose who and what your child will be. You are in a sense taking away the individuality of your children. They will have no sense of self because when they find out they will always know in the back of their heads that they are meant to be something. They were designed to be something.

What if the procedure doesn't work? What if you paid to have your son to be athletic and they are not even able to walk without tripping over their own two feet? Will this change how you look at your son because they were a waste of your money? And when your son finds out that he isn't what you wanted will this change how he acts or looks toward you? All of these things need to be taken into consideration and they aren't. Parents are so worried about what they want their kids to grow up to be that they are willing to possibly destroy a child. They are willing to make their son/ daughter just like everyone else. Is being an athlete that important?

Is it a girl or boy?

In the past of man kind when a woman got pregnant she had what she was having. There was no question asked. It is now possible for a woman and man to choose what sex baby they will have. In order to accomplish this the woman has to undergo In vitro Fertilization. They have to go through a prescreening procedure that can let you know whether or not the embryo will be male or female. This goes against nature. You are meant to have what you are meant to have, you should not be allowed to choose.

To screen the embryo, there first need to be In vitro Fertilization. This usually involves multiple eggs that are fertilized and then the one that is the desired sex (male or female) is chosen and implanted into the woman's uterus. The embryos that are not chosen are then discarded. This is almost like having an abortion, you are throwing away a fertilized egg that can grow into a child. What right does someone have deciding that should not be a child because it is not male or female.

Besides the fact that there is the issue of it being similar to abortion, imagine what damage it can do to a child. The child grows up and learns that they were chosen because of the sex that they are. They start to think, what if I was a girl/boy, would they not love me? Do I meet their expectations? This can do damage to a child because they were chosen as something for their parents, they might feel like something is expected of them.

Parents should be happy if it is a girl or boy. As long as they have a healthy child, who cares the sex of the baby? What difference is it going to make if the baby comes out male or female?

Sacrificing one child for another

Many people argue that designer babies can be a positive thing and helpful thing in many families. Imagine your child has a disease and needs transplants for a specific organ but you have no one who is a match for this child. You then learn that it is possible for you to create a baby that can be a perfect match and will be healthy and able to donate to the oldest child.

The movie "My Sister's Keeper" shows a perfect example of this. Anna was designed by her parents to help her sister Kate who has cancer. The idea of it is great, you have a child whom you love dearly and find out that he/she is sick and can die at any moment and needs transplants for blood or other organs. Creating a child who can help save your first child seems like such a great idea, you will have another child that you get to love and enjoy and at the same time you can help save the life of your first child. But how can this be a great thing if your in a sense harming one child for the sake of another. In the case of Anna and Kate, since Anna was born she was undergoing dangerous operations to help save the live of her sister. She was giving blood transfusions, organs, she had been hospitalized numerous times because of these operations. Her life was put in danger because her parents wanted to save their other daughter.

Is this the right thing to do? Design a child and treat them as if they are dispensable? It is unethical to o this to someone no matter the age. To force one child to give up organs to another just because it can save their life and that's what the child was designed for. This kind of thing can mentally and physically harm a child. They will start to feel like they don't matter to the parents,that they were only created to save their sibling and how they feel or what happens to them isn't going to matter. This child is going to grow up feeling worthless to the family. Not to mention the dangerous operations a child can undergo at a young age and not even have a say about it because they are not of a legal age to argue it. Designing a child to save another may seem like a great thing to do, but think about the harm and risks you can put this "designed baby" through. Is it really worth it?