Our world has been evolving for ages now, new advancements, technology and new methods of science have also been discovered.Genetically modified embryos are one of these advances, being a more unethical one. Although genetically modifying embryos is a new medical process, changing the course of nature is unethical due to the many risks this procedure can cause.  With the help of new science techniques and technology, a new topic comes into play, genetically modified embryos. Would changing your child be an ethical decision? Although people can see the positives of this how can you look past possible health risks for later generations, there is little medical justification, you are treating a human like a product, you are violating humanity, in the public eyes people might not see it as a good use of the tax payers money, and to genetically modify your child would have a cost that only millionaires could afford.

In our world, science and new technology is always changing.  One of the new controversial technologies is genetically modified embryos.  What these are is scientists taking an egg out and changing its genes to either cure disease or alter the appearance of the child.  This is very controversial because it is very expensive and it doesn’t always work.  How would you feel about changing the look of your child instead of letting it happen naturally?
        

One of the many points brought up when arguing this topic is public trust.  If a scientist has enough power, time and energy to change a very tiny human life forever, couldn’t that scientist be using their knowledge for something else, such as finding cures for other diseases or cancer?  There are problems that are more important than a child’s hair color.  Scientists and medical professionals could be working on something that could be more effective and help millions of people, not just one.

Some people believe that because genetically modified embryos can cure some diseases makes up for the fact that it can also cause many defects.  It is true that this can cure some diseases, but is the risk of never being able to have your child worth it being disease free?  By changing your child’s genes, you could create a worse problem than originally was there. 

Another big issue with this is the fact that it can take away compassion. Shouldn’t a parent be able to love their child no matter what it looks like or what any of its physical attributes are?  Also, if you alter your child’s appearance and they don’t like it then what was the point of you spending thousands of dollars?  Granted, it can help with disabilities and disease and such but sometimes people have disabilities to teach others and to help them learn more about compassion.  This is basically treating human beings as a product on an assembly line rather than a natural thing, which is what we are. Changing everything about a person makes them less unique if we change them.  This process just makes things less humane for future generations and is very pricey and a little sketchy and unsure.
            

Genetically modified embryos show that people cannot even be satisfied with their own children. Changing the embryos can and will cause potential health risks for the future generations. Genetically modified embryos require the changing of the mitochondria and DNA inside the unborn embryo. With changing the DNA and the mitochondria of the embryo, there are many health risks that can occur such as new genetic problems, loss of sight, hearing and sense of smell, these are just a few of the many health risks that can occur. Children are made the way they are for a reason, and genetically modified embryos completely defeat the purpose of individuality. Everyone has a purpose in this world, and they are made the way that they are for a reason, if you take that away from someone and try to make your child look like someone else or change what they were supposed to be like, it takes away from being their own change to the world.

The expenses that would also go into changing your child would be skyrocketing. The costs to do this would be for people like Bill Gates, or a Donald Trump. Normal people would not even be able to afford this, so what would the point be? With all the money that they would fund into this project would be insane, many tax payers would argue that their money could be spent in a more productive way such as cancer treatment, or the educational systems. There are more people in the world that would rather save a loved one from dying than someone who wants to make their baby with blonde hair, and green eyes with the most perfect skin complexion. More money for cancer treatment would have more interest to our society than genetically modified embryos. Also, with more money going to improve educational systems we would have a more educated society and our country could start making better choices again. 

Not only is this a bad idea, it could be one of the worst ideas anyone could have thought of. Why try to make someone perfect? There’s just no need for that. By messing with your baby, later in the future, it could come back and hurt them since they’re all changed. I’m not sure about you, but I wouldn’t want to do something that can later affect my kids. Someone could easily say “it doesn’t matter because all pregnancies have a chance of having something wrong with them”. That might be true, but by doing, this of course there’s a higher chance of something wrong happening to the baby. Why would you want your kid to suffer because you wanted your kid to be wonderful? You shouldn’t only be thinking of you, you should think about things that could happen in the long run, such as diseases and think about how your kid’s kid will possibly get a mutation since your lid was modified. Think about this, when you’re older, would you want you kid asking you a question such as “why can’t I provide my kid with genes that other people get naturally”?

These companies that do genetically modified embryos get funded by private companies. I’m not sure about you, but that just seems a little sketchy. If this idea is such a great idea to most people, wouldn’t you want to be noticed and say “yeah, I was a part of this research and pretty much made it all happen”? Well I bet these companies don’t because they know that they’re doing a pretty bad thing by affecting soon to be kids that have no idea what has happened to them. They’re pretty much like characters a person has made, that just seems wrong. That just shows that this process can’t be trusted since the companies don’t even want to show their names. It’s like going to a school without knowing anything about it, for all we know, it could have murderers in there or serial killers. You can’t just go ahead and trust something that you have no idea about. How do you expect for bigger companies to trust you so they can help you monopolize and make this process a huge thing?

The human genome is far too complicated for anyone to tamper with while being completely sure of the outcome. Scientists can never be a 100% sure about something since they can’t fully predict the outcome for this process. By messing with the zygotes genome, you could cause devastating and unpredictable consequences. Doing this, it’s like rolling a dice, you never know what’s going to happen, something great could happen, or something tremendously terrible can happen, like, why take the time, and waste money for something that’s not even 100% positive.

In conclusion, genetically modified embryos seem to have more cons than it does pros.  Tampering with the genome is a difficult and unsure process, and the time spent trying to do so could be used in a more beneficial way. The risks are far too large to be worth it, and the cost is even greater. 

Works Cited
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“Future Technology.” Designer Babies Pros and Cons. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2015.
Hanna, Laurie.  “Are Designer Babies The Way?” Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 14 Mar.                           2015. Web. 28 May 2015.
“Pros and Cons of Human Genetic Engineering.” NLCATPorg. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2015.