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Thread: Designer Defect Babies

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    Default Designer Defect Babies

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16299656/

    Oooof, this would have been a hot issue in my ethics and biotechnology class back in college. I've got my opinions, but i'm short on time. will post later.

    What is people's take on this?

  2. #2
    Kaylinn
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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism.
    “You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who’s going to look like me,” Reynolds said. “It’s just unbelievably presumptuous and they’re playing God.”


    This confused me. She thinks THEY are playing God? Shes the one who wants to screen her embryos until she find one with the genetic defect to make it a dwarf. She wants to discard perfectly normal, healthy embroys until she gets one that will look like her. Dwarf or not. She wants one that will look like her.
    Then there are the people who are blonde haired, blue eyed, and want only babies that will look like them, and will want to screen their embryos until they find one that fits their mold.
    this is insane.

    Cant people be happy with the baby they create?

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Well it's a thin line. Shouldn't, as a parent, you have the right to see how your child comes out? You do so with raising them, why not physically choose.

  4. #4
    aussiepunkshocker
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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    My take, oh god - why did I look at this thread >pulls out hair<?!
    Well in short I agree with Kaylin when she says "Why cant people be happy with the babies they create?"
    I think its a bit mean to purposely go out of your way to create a child with a condition that is going to make life hard for them. I remember there was a case a while back where the woman wanted a deaf baby, how fucking mean! Im not saying people with "defects" cant live full and happy lives, but I bet everyones childhood sucked and to wish that on your own child is just crap. Most people want better for their kids, not the same or worse.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    “You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who’s going to look like me,” Cara Reynolds said. “It’s just unbelievably presumptuous and they’re playing God.”
    WHAAAAT?! First of all, even if you're not a farking Dwarf... NOBODY CAN TELL ANYONE THEIR CHILD WILL OR WILL NOT LOOK LIKE THEM! I was born with blue eyes and black hair! I grew up to have brown eyes and red hair... NONE of it really made sense!

    OMG how dare I 'play god' by saying someone else shouldn't purposely deform their baby?

    wtf.

    I'm all for choices.. when they only effect YOU.


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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    UGH>>>......If you want to "choose" a baby..ADOPT...If you want to have a baby...be happy it's healthy. I know I'm drunk right now, but "designer" kids piss me off. Children arent accessories.......they are whole other lives who desewrve morethan that.
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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    I hear this term "playing god" and I think it's used loosely and only when it serves the moral agenda of the person saying it.

    First of all, God supposedly created us. That means he created us to have the ability to do such things and have the free will to determine how to use it. We take liberties all the time to interfere with God's will with the use of modern medicine to treat illnesses.

    Second, we all like to fantasize about our babies. How they will have the best of the mom and the dad be a better version of them. How is this any different?

    And lastly, "defect" is subjective. I am sure that dwarfs don't consider themselves defective. In fact, it's certain they have a pretty good idea how life as a dwarf is. They might even consider it a positive trait.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    OH my goodness, tee hee, I just wrote a 25 page term paper on this very topic.

    So forgive me if, after spending a semester on the debate, I'm not in the mood to debate it anymore. But in a nutshell, on the side of those defending the practice, what it comes down to is identity politics (Charles Taylor stuff). Disability rights advocates claim that prenatal testing to destroy embryos (or fetuses) who will probably be born with a disability is discriminating against the disabled- to which most people answer "oh it's not the people we hate, it's the disability". But a deaf person, who is a member of the 'deaf culture' (they do consider it a rich and fulfilling microcosm of society), will say that without her deafness, she is no longer the same person at all- that her disability is an intrinsic part of her identity. It would be comparable to a racist saying "I'm not against the people; I'm against their race". (this isn't my argument, it's just the argument given) Therefore, compromising the public view of disability rights in this regard (destroying the fetuses) is the same as saying to a disabled person "It would have been better had you never been born". A sidenote is that, statistically speaking, disabled people and their families tend to be much happier and content with their lives than nondisabled people imagine they are.

    So, consider: you're pregnant and you find out that your baby is going to be born with spina bifoda. Or, before you even get pregnant, you do pretesting that allows you to choose to destroy the spina bifoda embryos. This would offend those in favour of identity rights for the disabled, even if it seems like a no brainer for you to conceive prefer a non-disabled child to a disabled one. On the other side of the debate are deaf parents who want to ensure their child can be a participating member of their culture and community (ie- the deaf culture), so they try to conceive a deaf baby. This largely offends the nondisabled community for the same reason the first scenario offends the disabled community...

    Anyway, obviously a lot more to it. None of that is my opinion, just some points people raise.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    this is super heavy for christmas.

    i think that sometimes nature screws up, but it's still nature. it should just be allowed to do its thing. it was doing a pretty good job with this planet before we started screwing with it.

    one chick's view.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Quote Originally Posted by mollyzmoon View Post
    OH my goodness, tee hee, I just wrote a 25 page term paper on this very topic.

    So forgive me if, after spending a semester on the debate, I'm not in the mood to debate it anymore. But in a nutshell, on the side of those defending the practice, what it comes down to is identity politics (Charles Taylor stuff). Disability rights advocates claim that prenatal testing to destroy embryos (or fetuses) who will probably be born with a disability is discriminating against the disabled- to which most people answer "oh it's not the people we hate, it's the disability". But a deaf person, who is a member of the 'deaf culture' (they do consider it a rich and fulfilling microcosm of society), will say that without her deafness, she is no longer the same person at all- that her disability is an intrinsic part of her identity. It would be comparable to a racist saying "I'm not against the people; I'm against their race". (this isn't my argument, it's just the argument given) Therefore, compromising the public view of disability rights in this regard (destroying the fetuses) is the same as saying to a disabled person "It would have been better had you never been born". A sidenote is that, statistically speaking, disabled people and their families tend to be much happier and content with their lives than nondisabled people imagine they are.

    So, consider: you're pregnant and you find out that your baby is going to be born with spina bifoda. Or, before you even get pregnant, you do pretesting that allows you to choose to destroy the spina bifoda embryos. This would offend those in favour of identity rights for the disabled, even if it seems like a no brainer for you to conceive prefer a non-disabled child to a disabled one. On the other side of the debate are deaf parents who want to ensure their child can be a participating member of their culture and community (ie- the deaf culture), so they try to conceive a deaf baby. This largely offends the nondisabled community for the same reason the first scenario offends the disabled community...

    Anyway, obviously a lot more to it. None of that is my opinion, just some points people raise.
    Thanks 4 da cliffy notes...

    So, I guess the kid can say "Screw you mom, for making me like this." =wrong
    "Mom, this is the best thing that could've happened to me."=right


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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    ^^Ha, yeah...Theorectically speaking, if the kid thinks her life is worth living, she should be grateful. In terms of "This is the best thing that could have happened to me"- well, yeah, if she's comparing her existence to nonexistence. That's because, had her mom aborted her/ destroyed the embryo in favour of another one, the actual child born non-disabled would have been another kid altogether.

    So the disabled child never had the option to be born HERSELF without a disability. She could never say "Screw you mom, for making me like this", but only "screw you for giving me life at all." She could I suppose say "well mom, I guess I'm glad to exist and all, but for the good of society, maybe you should have had another kid instead." But that seems counterintuitive.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Hahaha! Adolf Hitler and Sir Francis Galton are turning in their graves right now!


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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    shit, I already spent a few thousand dollars to get rid of the nose I got from my parents. I'd be pretty pissed if they made an effort to give me more traits I didn't like.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    What I dont understand is why do your children you have have to be like you! Why cant they be differant an you love them with all your heart. Maybe she wants children for all the wrong reason.
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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    ^^^don't know, but that's how it is

    most people want their children to be like them, which is why they adopt babies that look like them and choose egg donors that look like them.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Hmm. I didn't read toooo much into this, but I can already tell, me no likey.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    I was born with blue eyes and black hair! I grew up to have brown eyes and red hair... NONE of it really made sense!
    Actually really common...blue eyes and black hair are the 'defaults' in a lot of caucasian newborns...the black hair falls out and grows back in the genetically determined colour (can be blond!), and the blue eyes darken (or not).

    Molly, that paper sounds so interesting! Makes me wanna take some Phil classes.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Quote Originally Posted by Emily View Post

    most people want their children to be like them, which is why they adopt babies that look like them and choose egg donors that look like them.
    I would think that the reason for this is so it's not obvious that the child is adopted. Then they can deal with telling him/her when they're ready.

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    you don't think narcissism plays a role in that at all?

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    Default Re: Designer Defect Babies

    Quote Originally Posted by Emily View Post
    you don't think narcissism plays a role in that at all?
    I'm sure it does, in some cases. But, having friends that adopted from Korea and hearing some of the dumb things people have said to them..

    Stranger: "Oh what a cute baby! What language does he speak?"
    My Friend: "Lady, he's six months old. He speaks baby"

    This would be avoided if the child looked more like them. That's why I said it.

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