Designer Ba...rbies!

As a teen, I've noticed a lot of things. Like for instance, what the most important kind of make up is. It's not eye-liner, eye-shadow, mascara or blush. I've noticed that the makeup people observe the most is you're genetic makeup. (bad joke? haha) People always notice whether you're tall or short, blue eyes or brown eyes, blond or black hair, etc. and where to we get these characteristics from? From our genes. I have a friend (who shall remain nameless ;) who constantly talks about what is the "perfect" guy. Her list is as follows:
- He can sing well.
- He can dance well.
- He can play the guitar.
- He's taller then than her.
- He's not too light, but not too dark.
- He's Smart.
- He's good looking.
- He's a really nice and the kind of guy who will get along with my family.
and the list goes on.

... Let's get realistic, can such a guy that falls under all the requirements in her list, really exist? I don't really think so. But, wouldn't it be nice to find someone that would fit all our expectations? Well, my friends... It is possible, but right now they come in the form of babies!

Designer Babies can be defined as - 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.
So, basically when choosing to have a designer baby you have the choice to choose exactly how your baby will turn out - intelligent, musician, athletic, immune to sickness, gorgeous, etc.

This method of creating babies is becoming a hot topic as it brings pros and cons. I think that our research into genetic processes is actually quite brilliant, but designer babies is not something I would choose to do in my future. Many social and ethical implications have been known with rise of designer babies. This method of choosing genes, create expensive procedures - which obviously, only the rich can afford. This would separate the rich from the poor even more, as an "elite race" becomes developed with all the enhanced babies. In the future would normal people be highly discriminated against as opposed to the people above normal? Which create a sort of social clash. Wouldn't you be self-conscious / constantly worrying about interacting with a person of perfection? I know I would, I hate being looked down upon, and in this case I'd be looked upon as "normal" which used to be the best thing a person could be.



The process of designer babies also require testing on animals, which is never a good thing. It also brings up the question; can designer babies be looked at as humans?

" Opponents of the liberal argument for enhancement argue that there are morally significant differences between upbringing and genetic enhancement. Francis Fukuyama thinks that genetic enhancements may change our descendents to such an extent that they lose their humanity. " [actionbioscience]

What do you think? Personally, I think designer babies are more like dolls.. like barbies. Being able to choose skin color, hair color, eye color... personality? It's like creating a new doll for Barbie, isn't it? It's always the better then normal characteristics getting chosen, and the normal inherited ones little girls who own these barbies have, that get left behind.


Creating babies artificially using the IVF procedure also has its risks. What does one do with the left over embryos? Most of the time it is thrown away or kept frozen and never used. That's hundreds of children left unborn. Hundreds of people who could of made a difference in our world. Hundreds of people, gone. Who knew?

So, although creating designer babies has shown how much our technology has developed over the years - from being able to choose only the gender, to now being able to choose the appearance, personality and even IQ of a child - I think it's getting a tad bit out of hand. I mean, aren't we supposed to appreciate and love any child that God has chosen to bless us with? :)






Sources
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=127
http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2002/2/27/16340/1842
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html

humans and our effect on biodiversity

Over the many years, humans have greatly changed the environment and left huge impacts on the species and its biodiversity. But in what way do we affect the biodiversity in our ecosystems? Personally, I think that we, humans, have made many negative affects - as we hear much about possible extinction, huge declines in species and destruction of habitats. From the humid Philippines to the freezing Arctic, our impact has left huge dents.

In these regions, the marine biodiversity has taken a huge toll. Down in the Philippines, many fishermen use the method of "destruction fishing". Which is the method of throwing dynamite in the water, which destroys all of the species within a certain distance of the explosion. This method causes many species of fish to be at risk of extinction because of the constant uses and over fishing of the industry. On the other side of the world, in the Arctic, the disappearances of the many baleen whales and the heavy exploitation of fish, have a huge toll on the biodiversity in the Arctic waters aswell. Drainage of the Arctic wetlands also contribute to negative effects on the diversity, as water decreases slowly from these habitats, leaving some species without homes and plants without a source of water.


The marine biodiversity isn't the only diversity at risk. The amount of trees being cut down in the many forests of the Philippines, contributes to teh negativity of our interventions. All of the logging, mining and land conversion going on in the region, have led to less habitats of the land animals. Excessive hunting and oil pollution in the Arctic has also been a reason for the decline of species in our ecosystems. The oil pollution causes extinction and has toxic effects on the plants, birds and other animals - creating no positive affects.


Lastly, land and water management for both regions have been poor. Our human intervention has led to many negative affects on our ecosystems. If we don't change our routines the biodiversity will continue to decline leaving not much left in the future years. Although humans can also affect the biodiversity in a positive way, I see our actions as negative. In the news, we hardly hear about positive affects and aside from that, we have social groups who are fighting to protect the environment (i.e Green Quest). Are we really stewards of the earth, if most of our actions lead to extinctions, and declines?


source(s)
- http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/philippines/Pages/impacts.aspx
- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_impacts_on_the_biodiversity_of_the_Arctic

first entry, how exciting ;)

hi, i'm ana abad :)
and this is a test entry for my bio blog.

i like biology.
the end.
bye!