Designer Babies: A Controversial Issue

As genetic engineering became in-demand in modifying plants and animals, designer babies has been
developed to upgrade the human gene pool to the next level. Designer Babies is a modification of genes
in an embryo to achieve a selected trait from the parents’ genome. Commonly it is used to alter
different possible diseases that the child may inherit or develop from the parents’ genes. Modifying
genes in an embryo became an option to upper-class parents for their babies to avoid any potential
disorders and also to attain any desired traits; like height, weight, features, and many more. 2 of the
common methods are prominent in designing babies; the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and
the Crispr-Cas9. The first designed baby was born in America named Adam Nash; a boy who is edited
with the traditional PGD - selecting qualified gamete that shows the desired characteristics – that saved
his sister, second is the Chinese twins Lulu and Nana; twins edited using the modern technology for gene
editing Crispr-Cas9, and administered by a rouge Chinese scientist He Jiankui. With such unethicalness a
response of prohibition is imposed with jurisdiction. As of today, modifying genes for any reproductive
use on humans in US since 2017 is illegal. Human germline genome editing was described by the World
Health Organization (WHO) as an irresponsible act of scientists. The WHO’s director-general Tedros
Adhamon stated that the local authorities in every country should not allow any further work relating in
human gene editing until implications have been properly considered. Banning researches and
experiments in the field led the scientist to study more with animals – again. Gene editing is still not
complete and concrete, it is still uncertain, but it will be in use specifically in the near future for
medications.

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