Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Nature vs. Nurture (Designer Babies)

Recently in the AAT curriculum, there has been much discussion and controversy over the topic about Nature vs. Nurture. A Part of the discussion that has really caught my attention was the discussion about designer babies.

Designer babies basically refer to the parents or guardian manually selecting traits for their babies. As such, babies are more like to posses the parents' desired trait. This is of course very expensive and can only be achieved if they are financially wealthy to do so.

There has been a lot of argument to whether such actions are morally and ethically correct and reasonable. One of the concepts we have learnt during our AAT lessons was Utilitarianism. This concept focuses on one's advantage and things achieved from the situation. As such, based on this concept, designer babies would be perfectly alright. The parents of the designer baby would be happy as their child has a special advantage. However, if we look at religious and moral values, designer babies might not be very acceptable.

Especially in Muslim and Islam practices, designer babies are generally looked at as wrong and immoral as it is opposing nature. Technically speaking, designer babies "defy nature" as they do not conform to how they were meant to be created and existed originally. Hence, most religious practices would regard designer babies as wrong and immoral.

Personally, I am neutral about designer babies. I am an atheist and hence religiously, do not find any fault with designer babies. However I suspect the necessity for designer babies at times. I would personally try not to support designer babies as I think there is not real need for it. It might even bring harm since it is such a new concept. I am also more pro nature and do not appreciate how humans defy the true nature of babies.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Yi Da,

    Evidence that you have been listening in class and an acceptable weighing with your personal opinion raised. However, it would be better if you had added in more information to support your respective pointers so as to give your argument a firmer foundation.

    Yours sincerely,
    Chew Tianle

    ReplyDelete