By Courtney Keane Mrs. Martinez

Period 8

A dominant allele is an allele that will always show up in the organism when the allele is present.

A recessive allele is a trait that will be covered up in the presence of a dominant allele and will only show up if there are two recessive alleles.

Co-dominant alleles are alleles that are neither dominant nor recessive and they both show up in the trait.

Heredity is the passing of traits from parent to offspring. Each parent has a set of two alleles either recessive or dominant or one recessive and one dominant. The offspring will receive one allele from each parent randomly.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) started in 1990. The main goal of the HGP was to identify every gene in the human genome. With this information scientists hope to gain a better understanding of how

humans develop and hope that will lead to new treatments and prevention strategies for some genetic disorders.

Social concerns- How can they make the use of the genetic information fair? Who gets access to it and how

will it be used? Who will own and control the information? How will this information affect an individual and the society’s judgment of the

individual. Ethical Concerns-

Should testing be performed when no treatment is available? Should parents have the right to have their minor children tested for adult-onset diseases? Are genetic tests reliable and interpretable by the medical community?

Legal Concerns- What kind of privacy will be given?

GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act) protects Americans from discrimination based on information derived from genetic tests.

Single gene disorders are genetic conditions caused by the alteration or the mutation of a specific gene in an individual’s DNA.

Examples:•Colorblindness•Hemophilia•Cystic fibrosis

A chromosome abnormality reflects an atypical number of chromosomes or an abnormality in one or more chromosomes. A karyotype is the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus in a eukaryotic cell.

Examples:•Down’s Syndrome•Klein Feller Syndrome•Turner’s Syndrome

Multifactorial disorder is a disorder caused by the interaction of genetic and sometimes nongenetic environmental factors.

Examples:•Heart disease•Diabetes•Alzheimer’s disease

Single Gene Disorders Chromosome Abnormalities Multifactorial Disorder

A “designer baby” is a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with invitro fertilization.

Invitro fertilization is when you fertilize an egg with sperm in a test tube in a laboratory outside the mother’s body.

Right now there are only two legally possible ways to use this technology. One way is using it to determine the sex and the genes of the baby. The second way is using it for screening embryos for disease.

In the future scientists hope to cure genetic diseases in embryos by replacing the “bad” DNA with healthy DNA. Which is called germ line therapy.

Cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals.

A pedigree is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance or phenotypes of a particular gene or organism.

Cloning

Pedigree

Pro’s•You can choose the sex of your child.•You can choose what your child looks like.•Scientists can switch the bad or harmful DNA with healthy DNA.•You can make your child “perfect”•If your child has a disease and needs an organ you can have a child designed to be an organ donor.

Con’s•Is it really ethical to designer your baby?•If this starts people could get carried away with what perfect really is.•It’s unnatural.•How will a child feel about being alive only to be an organ donor.•It’s a lot of money to design your baby. The government shouldn't be spending their money on this.

In my opinion designer babies are unethical. Why would you want to change your baby from the way God made them. What happens when the way you designed your baby is not perfect? Plus what's the point. Why would you pay so much money to change something you don’t need to change. Aren’t you supposed to love your baby unconditionally. Plus what happens if something goes wrong. What if the new genes mutate and your baby gets a disease. Is it worth it then.

•Designing your baby costs a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be really cool to choose the hair color, eye color, gender, skin color, and intelligence for your baby. Well that costs $18,400 and that much only covers the gender. Do you really want to waste all your money on something you don’t need especially when it involves changing nature. Plus the government spends thousands of dollars on research and equipment. We owe billions of dollars in debt and you want the government to spend more so your baby looks pretty.

There is a lot of things that can go wrong is this procedure. To change the DNA you have to mutate it. When you mutate it if something goes wrong it can cause physical damage it the child and even the mother. Also some mutations can make the babies less human. Is that what you want for your child?

Some people want to change their child’s appearance to make them look perfect. But what is perfect? There is a lot of people in the world that almost everyone can agree they are beautiful. But there not perfect. They may not have the perfect hair color or the eye color but they still look beautiful. Plus people who try to look perfect end up ruining their beauty. Lots of people get nose jobs to make their nose perfect but in ends up looking worse then before. Some people may argue that if the changes they make to their baby don’t come out perfect they will still love them. But then why can’t they just love them the way nature intended them to be.

In conclusion I am opposed to designer babies. It’s unnatural. One of the first question a person may ask you when you get pregnant is “Will it be a boy or a girl” not “What color are you going to make their eyes. Plus it’s not worth it. Why would anyone be willing to pay thousands of dollars, take a lot of risks for themselves and the child and waste their time for something totally unneeded and unnatural. So now you are wasting your money, the government’s money, and scientists’ time so there is a chance your baby will look pretty. Plus what about the baby. You may think you know what is best for them but if you loved them you wouldn't change them. Some people may argue I am going to design a baby to done an organ to my dying son. So what you are saying is you are going to have a child to be a organ donor, and go through surgeries and pain al because you love your first child more. Now is that what’s best for them?

Works Cited "About the Human Genome Project." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/about.shtml>. "Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues Research." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/research/elsi.shtml>.

"Single Gene Disorders." Reproductive Genetics Institute: PGD Experts. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. <http://www.reproductivegenetics.com/single_gene.html>.

Prentice Hall Science Explorer Cells and Heredity. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2002. Print "What Is a Designer Baby?" Bionet - New Discoveries in Life Sciences - Explore the Science and Debate the Issues.

Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/db_cont1.htm. "Designer Babies - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com.

Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,17696,00.html>. "Designer Babies – Like It Or Not, Here They Come | Singularity Hub." Singularity Blog Covering Robots,

Genetics, Stem Cells, Transhumanism, The Brain, The Future. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/>.

"TIME Newsfile: Cloning." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 08 Nov. 2004. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/newsfiles/cloning/>.

"Google Image Result for Http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Pedigree-chart-example.png." Google. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Pedigree-chart-example.png&imgrefurl=http://freewebs.com/pics9/pedigree-charts.html&usg=__AgDOZGz2ZxTcTCsG5fY-uYKff-0=&h=274&w=446&sz=19&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=20P_10zvi2viEM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=145&ei=jMmLTaOsM4m2sAPJkcT5CA&prev=/images?q=pedigree+chart&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=871&bih=407&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=486&vpy=108&dur=749&hovh=176&hovw=287&tx=178&ty=101&oei=jMmLTaOsM4m2sAPJkcT5CA&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0>.