Cameron Lindsay

Prof. Eleanor Boudreau

ENC 2135

October 30, 2017

This conversation take place in a downtown area in the year 2023. Scientists have a

better understanding of the human genome and how CRISPR is used. Nicholas and Celeste are

an older couple who are ready to have a child, when they see on the news Designer Babies

are are on the rise, and has recently become officially commercialized within the last few years.

It is still a controversial topic amongst the general public.

Nick and Celeste are driving in traffic, when they see a group of protesters outside. They

have large signs, and they are all anti-Designer babies. The people holding the signs are casually

leaning of them, with warm smiles on their faces. Celeste, who is sitting on the passenger's side,

sees them first. Hey, Nick. Look over there, check it out.Nicholas looks over to where Celeste

is pointing. Nick sees a group of people holding up a bunch of posters. Hm? Them? Whats all

that about it? Traffic is at a stand still, so he is able to read each sign. God is the Creator of Life

is written in bold white letters on a large on two large black posters. On the smaller posters have

different things written about anti-stem cell research. The protesters are smiling as they hold up

their signs.

Its about Designer Babies, Celeste explains. It just became legal for all people to

pick the genes of their baby. A while ago I heard people at work talking about Designer Babies,

now I keep seeing different things about it all over the place. Nick turns down the volume of the
radio. Now that you mention it, yeah, I hear about it a lot these days. Its the new thing to talk

about. But man, are they something. Those are some eyebrow raising signs, huh? he says.

Yeah, but they got us looking, and Im sure that's what they want.

Then all that can be heard in the car is the hum of the engine, and an occasional honking

in the distance. Celeste continues to stare at the protesters from the car window, while Nicholas

looks ahead, his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. The silence lasts for while. Traffic is still at

a standstill. Nicholas eventually looks over at Celeste. She feels him staring, but doesnt look

back. Nick decides to ask, So Wh-what do you think about it? I mean, like, would you be

willing to do that? Celeste sighs. Designing my own baby? Im not gonna lie. I thought about

it. Weve been trying for a while, and Im a bit older, so having a baby higher risk, but I still

dont know. Something about it seems wrong.

It would be cool to have a baby with superpowers though.Celeste laughs. She finally looks

back at him. Youre an idiot. Thats not how it works. Nick smiles, I know, I was kidding.

But wouldnt it be nice to know the exact turnout of your child?

Hmm. I guess it would be nice, but well lose the element of surprise part of becoming a parent.

At the same time, you and I were never designed but ended up arguably fine. And dont you

think we already tamper too much with the nature of things already? Choosing your babys

natural characteristics, and stuff. It sounds kind of sick Its not like were choosing different

toppings for an icecream cone, this is an actual baby. What if something goes wrong? What

would we do?

Ill tell you what, wait till we go home, and well look it up.

Deal. So, takeout for dinner?

You know it.

 After an hour, they finally make it home. They order Chinese food, and it takes another

hour for it to get delivered. They manage to avoid the designer baby conversation until they start

eating. So, did you find anything about designer babies? Celeste asks her cheeks full of orange

chicken. Actually, yeah. I did. Its this article called, Redesigning nature: to be or not to be? By

Jayashree Das, Pritha Dey, and Pradipta Banerjee. I found it on this scientific journal called

Current Science, Nick answers.

Those names meant nothing to Celeste, By who?

They are all research scientists at Dayananda Sagar University in India . Pradipta Banergee does

cancer research and has a Phd in Biochemistry. Jayashree Das has written articles on different

cellular phenomenon, and Pritha Dey, who studies Bioinformatics.

But there seems to be little information about them other than that. I can barely find any

information about any of them online about any of them. The only other thing I found on any of

the writers is Das only has 4 publications total.This is the article you chose?

I thought the article was interesting, and it shows the potential of gene editing.

Celeste leaned back on her chair, What makes you say that? He pulls up the article on his

phone, and shows it to Celeste from across the table.It says here, The technique holds the

potential to erase genetic defects from family pedigrees plagued by inherited diseases, treat

cancer in unprecedented ways and grow human organs in animals.

Celeste swallows her food, and takes the phone out of Nicks hand. She puts her fork

down, she reads through the article. The article explains what gene editing is, and applications of

gene editing. It Nick, did you read the entire article? What do all these fancy words even mean?

All that DNA and RNA talk, whos supposed to understand all this? Celeste looks over the

article again Look here, she highlights part of the text. The article says its very expensive.
We just saved enough money to have this kid, if we rearrange our childs genes, then we have to

pay even more to have one. What if we cant afford it? She passes the phone back to Nick. He

reads what she highlights,

Since the editing process is costly, families will be charged heavily for re-

engineering embryonic genome restricting the technology to the financially stable class

of the society. Introduction of such a protocol will lead to a gap in the society worldwide,

not to mention, developing countries where there is a large difference between the rich

and poor. (Das, et. al.)

We are going to end up spending a lot of money on the baby anyways, what's a few

more thousand gonna do? Celeste rolls her eyes, Wow. I never got the memo that we were

ballin like that. Nick Im being serious here, I mean, from what I read, it just seems like

another way people can make money, by turning babies into products, with customizable

features. It doesnt seem natural.

But scientists said it was safe.

The article also says it could lead to cell damage. One of the protesters signs said it can kill

children. I dont want to risk the wellbeing of my child for superficial reasons. You know, those

protesters with their signs really got me thinking, should we actually edit our babys genes? This

seems unethical.

You see a few signs with some bible verses, and now youre convinced we shouldnt follow

through with this?

You read one article, and now you believe its safe, huh? These are human beings we are

talking about. All of a sudden we are putting a price tag genes, it just sounds wrong. Besides I

dont feel comfortable playing with the nature of things.

My article is written by actual research scientists. Professionals of their field. Im pretty sure I

know what theyre talking about. Those were just strangers on the side of the road!

At this point, both of them have stopped eating. They stare eachother down from across

the table. Nick once again is the one to break the silence, Im being serious too,you know. It

seems like a really good idea. Youre not exactly a spring chicken-

Did you just-

-and you said it yourself. The older you are, the more high risk the pregnancy. This a sure fire

way to know that our baby will be born safe.

Nick, no it isnt. This is all new. No one knows the possible long term effects of manipulating a

persons genes. But what we do know is, this isnt natural.

They are both unsure of what to say next. They each have convinced themselves that they,

themselves are right. Didnt you feel something when you saw those protesters? Celestes eyes

watered. I feel like we are stepping into a territory we dont belong in. We shouldnt be playing

God. We are only messing with the nature of things.

I felt like they were just trying to get a rile out of people. Celeste leaned away from Nick.

Who were they trying to rile up? They werent even yelling. They were smiling at everyone,

just trying to relay a message.

They just wrote things down with big letters. There are no facts to prove anything behind any

of their statements. I dont understand how something like that can convince you to not even

consider a safe possibility a baby. This article is based on facts.

When gene editing was used on the animals, the success rate was only 50%. I don't want to take

a chance like that with my baby, Nick.Celeste takes a deep breath. Im not done arguing about

with you, Im exhausted. Just think about what a designer baby entails, is that really what we
want in a child? We can pick up this conversation some other time. I going to bed. Good Night.

Celeste gets up from the dining table, and throws out the rest of her dinner, and leaves her plate

in the sink, to wash some other time.

Reflection

For my genre analysis project I decided to create short story, about two people who want

a baby, but disagree on the way to have one. I wanted to to write a story because, narrative

writing has always been a bit easier for me, and it was fun to use a different method to analyze

artifacts, than the way I usually do it. I thought having a couple argue about designer babies was

the best plot for my analysis because it made the topic personal to the characters. Based on the

artifacts ability to persuade the characters determined whether or no they were having a designer

baby.

I chose my artifacts based on the differences in rhetorical appeals. One of my artifacts

relies heavily on the audiences emotions, while the other artifact uses more facts and proof to

persuade the audience. I wanted to compare how the different appeals are able to influence what

people think about designer babies. I also wanted to show how mixing different rhetorical

appeals does a better job of persuasion, because it has more substance, than relying on one

appeal, like the image of the protesters.

If i had to do genren analysis again, I would definitely use this form again. This form of

genre analysis is an awesome way to keep a reader engages in a topic, and allows them to see the

different points of view of a specific topic. I also really enjoyed getting a chance to create a

story.
 Work Cited

Das, Jayashree,. Dey, Pritha,. and Banerjee, Pradipta. "Redesigning Nature: To Be or Not to

Be?." Current Science (00113891), vol. 112, no. 7, 10 Apr. 2017, pp. 1346-1350.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.18520/cs/v112/i07/1346-1350.

Kezh,Rezah. Anti-Abortionists Protest Stem Cell Research FFE Magazine. 8. Feb. 2014

http://ffemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/future-of-stem-cell-research-3.jpg