The Technological Advancements in Robotics: Building a Baby

The rapid advancement of technology during the last 30 years has allowed a new scientific procedure to emerge, allowing parents to alter their child’s genes, in hopes of giving their baby a better quality of life. By changing an offspring’s DNA sequence, it not only benefits them, but it also prevents future generations from inheriting certain genetic diseases and inherited medical conditions. This brilliant procedure of genetically modifying a baby, is a method that eliminates a few hereditary disadvantages by removing or adding a particular gene from an embryo. Considering how thousands of babies are born with medical conditions, this new technology will give parents the opportunity to reduce such risks from happening to their baby. In addition to improving one’s condition of life, this new process can also be beneficial when it comes to new scientific discoveries that will strengthen and enhance the human genome. This advanced method will only reinforce the wellness of babies and future generations.

Allowing parents to dictate their baby’s genetic makeup to a certain extent, does not make them ‘play God’, it does however, give them a possibility of having a positive impact on their baby’s health. As a physician at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Mark Sauer, strongly believes that the efforts of preventing a baby from being born with a disability should be practiced. In a 2013 article, Proposed Treatment To Fix Genetic Diseases…, Dr. Sauer describes the benefits of this medical process, one that will “cure disease and help women deliver healthy, normal children.” Even though research regarding genetically modified embryos is controversial and raises a variety of concerns, there are multiple professionals that believe it is the only method that will prevent any diseases from being inherited. As Ryan T. Anderson, a researcher of bioethics, passionately argues that altering embryos poses many unknown risks, he still recognizes the positive effects it holds. In the article, Just Because We Can Create Genetically Modified Babies Doesn’t Mean We Should, he claims that “the technique holds potential to treat a variety of genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease, as well as even more complex conditions such as cancers and heart disease.”

By doing so, he acknowledges how this new strategy can be beneficial. As such James Hughes, the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies at Trinity College, also agrees how this revolutionary method is crucial to providing a better quality of life. In a 2015 article Designer Babies are Coming…, Hughes passionately argues “we shouldn’t stop people from trying to provide someone with a ‘good’ genetic code.” Many researchers are confident that the process of snipping out specific bits of genetic code, also known as CRISPR, can become trustworthy with the improvement of technology. Harvard geneticist George Church, is clearly in favor of proceeding with research and practice of CRISPR since the required technology is already here. Church also states in the same article as Hughes, that “researchers are already using far more accurate versions of that technology”, therefore making this engineering technique much more safely than what people originally believed. Overall, the promising technology that is available today, reducing the chances of any risks from occurring, should be available to parents that are forced to face the challenging consequences of inherited diseases or unwanted mutations.

Applying this scientific advancement on humans will overall have an advantage in the human gene pool by enhancing the tolerance of environmental changes that are the cause of many illnesses. Based on an MIT Technology Review website article, Chinese scientists are creating CRISPR babies, a team at the University of Science and Technology, in Shenzhen, has planned to “eliminate a gene… rendering the offspring resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera.” By doing so, many people will not have to worry about being affected by any of these infectious diseases and viruses which can potentially be fatal illnesses. According to Elena Milova, a devoted advocate of rejuvenation technologies, the potential costs of creating a healthy embryo is cheaper than the lifelong prescriptions. In the article Would I want a Designer Baby, Milova explains how “it is far cheaper to begin with a healthy embryo...than to provide lifelong treatment to a person born with certain genetic problems or weaknesses.” Then supports her statement by claiming “the lifetime treatment cost of an HIV infection, is estimated at 379,668, which can be considered the amount of money saved by preventing an HIV infection.” Thus, the overall cost of altering an embryo’s genome, is worth spending in order to prevent unnecessary suffering in a large scale. A geopolitical expert and writer, Jamie Metzel, is certain that designer babies will have a positive effect on future generations since the altered gene pool will then be inherited. In the 2019 article, How Common Will ‘Designer Babies’ Be In The Future?, Metzl, claims “this technology can be used to eliminate terrible diseases… help us live longer, save us from a deadly pathogen, or possibly help us survive a hotter earth.” His statement influences the strong belief that genetic engineering has much more to offer besides preventing the inheritance of painful diseases, enabling humans to possibly living a healthier and a longer period of time.

Overall, this complex but yet excellent scientific and engineering procedure will only bring rewarding results to humans. It is a great method to eliminate any diseases and illnesses from affecting a person and future generations. The advancement of technology is already here, the only obstacle that stops this method from growing and being accepted, is the belief that it is unethical. At one point, medicine as a whole was refuted because it was considered unethical as well, but because medical procedures kept being practiced and performed, it soon became a trustworthy and necessary component in everyone’s life. As such, if the concept of altering one’s genetic makeup is welcomed, then it can possibly result in many other advantages factors. Risks must be made in order to allow humans to have a healthy and prosperous life without the interference of unnecessary suffering.