Transcript Designer Babies ? Fact or Fiction?

Designer Babies – Fact or
Fiction?
Sheila Dziobon
Café Scientifique
4 April 2005
Designer Hat
Designer Building
External Originality
Same functionality?
• Do we object to ‘designer babies’ because
it turns the baby into a ‘product’?
• Are they externally within range of
similarity?
• Are they internally within range of
similarity?
• Are we really designing babies?
• Consider some ‘famous’ designer babies
Louise Brown born 25 July 1978
Diane Blood and baby Stephen
Mr & Mrs Nash
So, what’s new?
• Selecting a mate for the purpose of
reproduction?
• Do we select on physical characteristics?
• Do we select on personality?
• Do we select on health, financial, social
status?
• Have we always had the power to design?
Genes..
• Is this what we imagine?
What is a gene?
Artificial Reproductive
Technology
• In vitro fertilisation
– Louise Brown 25 July 1978
• Features
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Embryo implantation
Normally creates ‘spare’ embryos
Gamete (sperm/ova) donation possible
Embryos can be selected preimplantation
Genetic Testing
• Not limited to embryo testing
preimplantation during IVF
– Genetic testing used on prospective parents
– Genetic testing used on the foetus in the womb
• May influence the choice to have a child, or
have a particular child – both may be
described as ‘designer’ and the make-up of
the next generation
Zain Hashmi
Charles Whittaker
Some of our fears
Prenatal tests will be devised in order
to detect and eliminate foetuses
with particular behavioural traits or
physical features
Increasingly routine abortion of
‘abnormal’ foetuses will have
deleterious consequences for
disabled people
Genetic testing
• Prenatal screening and abortion might be
employed not only to prevent disease and
disability but also by prospective parents
anxious to maximise their offspring’s
intelligence, beauty and conformity to
conventional behavioural norms.
• There is no single indentifiablegene
responsible for intelligence, attractiveness
or sexual orientation, but this fear remains
strong.
Some choices might be OK,
others might not be OK
• Preventing avoidable suffering?
• Debilitating genetic disease v trivial or
non-therapeutic reasons
• Diagnosing a serious sex-linked disorder,
such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy v
selecting the sex of offspring for ‘social’
reasons
• Reducing pain and suffering v attempt to
subvert the natural randomness of human
reproduction
Some facts…
• In the year 2000 there were about
572,800 ‘natural’ live births in the
United Kingdom and 4,362 live births
following ART: that is 0.76%.
• There is no evidence to show that
babies born following ART suffer
more physical or psychological harm
than other babies
The ‘Disability’ Question
• Suggests that science presupposes a crisp
separation between normal and abnormal
human development which does not exist
• Argues that what is ‘normal’ is socially
constructed.
• A child of the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ sex is also a
social construct
• Concludes that as a society we ought not to
reinforce these constructs
Will we do routine genetic
testing?
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Impractical. Why?
Principle way to get foetal tissue is invasive and
carries a comparatively high risk of miscarriage
Embryo selection following IVF lengthy, expensive
and presupposes prior knowledge of risk
So many genetic abnormalities that it would be
impossible to screen for all of them.
Only meaningful now because of background
knowledge - such as family history
Cloning
• Dolly & Bonnie
The Arguments
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Safety
Dignity
Identity
Family relationships
Diversity
Slippery Slope
Confidentiality
Let’s keep it in perspective
• By reducing poverty levels we could radically alter
the physical and mental health of the existing and
future generation to an extent unimaginable
through ‘designer babies’
• Why do we seem so fearful about our capacity to
single out certain individuals who present a genetic
risk, and untroubled by our ability to make
predictions about ill health likely to be suffered
by children born into poverty?
• Let’s bring all aspects of child health into the
public arena for debate