1. There are numerous reasons to use eugenics and customize your child’s genes. It can be for desired capability in certain areas as well as to keep children from being born with fatal, impairing, and/or often painful genetic diseases. “One technology is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), currently used by some people at risk of passing serious genetic disorders on to their children” (Agar). There is no reason to give your child a fatal or painful disease. If you can avoid this for your child then why wouldn’t you? Your child could grow up healthy and completely within social norms. IVF and PGD are becoming available to everyone as of late. IVF has been available to those women who needed help. PGD was available to them when they were receiving IVF. Now, fertility clinics are starting to open this procedure to everyone. Also, not only can you prevent diseases, but children and adults alike can be screened and find out if they are carrying any genes which are a disease. They can see if things like heart disease or Alzheimer’s are in their genes and if they are possible carriers. Research has been tested on mice. Ira Black, chairman of neuroscience at Rutgers University says: "It's very exciting and holds the hope of not only making animals smarter but also, ultimately, of having a human gene therapy for use in areas such as dementia." There are many concerns when it come to eugenics and customizing the genes of your child. In essence, you are changing the genes, but at an unknown cost to other genes which can be devastating. Basically, by targeting one gene, it can disrupt another gene’s function which could be crucial for survival. “Many genes have more than one effect. The effect we intend may be accompanied by others of which we become aware only later” (Agar). The effects that we are only aware of later can be harmful and even life threatening. Also, many traits we would want to advance, change, or effect are dependent on multiple genes, thus targeting of one gene might not make any improvement in the desired area or improve insignificantly. The cost of IVF and PGD are both expensive. They can be up to $10,000 each. Most insurance companies do not cover IVF or PGD. And, PGD until recently has only been available to those who were already undergoing IVF treatments. The method of screening people for their genetic makeup can be good news to some and very bad for others. Who would want to live knowing at around age 60 they would more than likely develop Alzheimer’s? Knowing that you carry a genetic disease could cause stress to an individual and affect the way they live their life. The mice testing from the collective work of many colleges may show negative impacts as well. Dr Tim Bliss, head of neurophysiology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, said: "When you insert a gene at random into the genome you don't know what might happen. These animals seem to be OK, but there might be all sorts of hidden down sides to having this extra protein. Melanie Brewer, NS241 Philosophy & History of Science Park University, Fall 2011 "Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes." – James Watson. There is a great moral and ethical dilemma over designer babies and eugenics. In changing the way we reproduce as humans, we are ultimately affecting everyone already born into the population as well as all the new babies to arrive into the population. Would these new humans lose their humanity? There wouldn’t be any way to control the population growth because everyone would be healthy. There would be the same traits desired by many and would that ultimately just make all new designer babies the same? There are many positives in order to prevent diseases and to gain advancements in human nature. However, it’s expensive and it’s not a “sure thing” that there would even be improvement. In the end, the debate over eugenics will remain and only time will tell how the human population with be affected. *Eugenics: the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics). *Designer Baby: “a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics” *PGD (Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis): The woman has a collection of embryos created for them by IVF. These embryos are grown to the eight-cell stage, at which point one or two cells are removed and checked for genetic variants associated with the disease. Only embryos lacking these variants are introduced into the womb. *IVF (In Vitro Fertilization): a specialized technique by which an ovum, especially a human one, is fertilized by sperm outside the body, with the resulting embryo later implanted in the uterus for gestation. *Francis Galton: Creator of Eugenics (1869) PROsCONs Eugenics: “Designer Babies”

2. REFERENCES : Agar, N. (2006). Designer babies: Ethical considerations. Retrieved from http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html * Dictionary.com. (2011). Eugenics. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eugenics * Dictionary.com. (2011). In vitro fertilization. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/in vitro fertilization * Kally, K. (2011). Pros and cons of gender selection. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_4671833_pros-cons-gender-selection.html * Norrgard, K. (2008). Human testing, the eugenics movement, and irbs. Retrieved from http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.htmlhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eugenics http://www.ehow.com/about_4671833_pros-cons-gender-selection.html http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement- and-irbs-724http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement- and-irbs-724 * Sci/tech: Genetic engineering boosts intelligence(1999, September 01). BBC News, Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/435816.stm* Wetzstein, M. (1996). Genetic screening. Retrieved from http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~mcclean/plsc431/students/mike.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/435816.stm*