Designer Babies Theme in The Giver novel Essay Example
Designer Babies Theme in The Giver novel Essay Example

Designer Babies Theme in The Giver novel Essay Example

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  • Pages: 2 (529 words)
  • Published: December 31, 2017
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The novel "The Giver" presents a world where everyone is equal, with brown eyes, brown hair, and light skin. Set in the distant future, the leaders of this world believe that enforcing equality and safety will create a utopia. However, this supposed utopia is far from perfect. In this world, genetic scientists manipulate people to suppress their emotions and appearance, resulting in a life devoid of feelings and uniformity. Imagine living a life without emotions, where everyone looks identical and follows the same monotonous routine every day, unable to perceive colors! This chilling reality serves as a cautionary tale against the legalization of "Designer Babies" in the USA. I will present two main points to substantiate my claim that allowing "Designer Babies" marks the beginning of our downfall. Firstly, I would like to dispel a common misconception - that

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individuals can easily select specific traits for their baby. According to Bonnie Steinbeck, a reproductive biomedical ethics professor at the University of Albany, the only reliable aspect that can be designed is the sex of the baby. This challenges the belief that one can simply handpick their baby's characteristics.

The manipulation of genes is essential in selecting traits like eye or hair color, although its scope is limited to embryos. Critics may claim that the ability to choose every aspect of a child would create perfection. Nevertheless, Bonnie Steinbeck argues against this notion, stating that the ability to choose is restricted solely to gender and even that is not as precise as depicted by the media. It is crucial to acknowledge that achieving the desired gender would require a substantial financial investment, potentially costing thousands

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of dollars for a 60-70% chance of success.

I strongly disagree with the provided odds as they are unrealistic in the real world. Additionally, my main argument is that "Designer Babies" mark the start of our downfall. When considering this, it is reminiscent of Hitler's desire to eliminate other types of individuals, leaving only his preferred type. Frankly speaking, wouldn't we all want our children to be more intelligent or athletic? I certainly would. However, this could result in negative consequences, similar to what was depicted in the novel "The Giver" when genetic scientists misused their abilities.

In this future novel, things deteriorated to such an extent that the main character, a person created with blonde hair and blue eyes by mistake of the genetic scientists, had to flee and protect himself from the frightening world imposed on him. It is worth noting, even in the future, how unreliable this procedure is as the genetic scientists made a mistake in creating the protagonist. Legalizing "Designer Babies" would undoubtedly be a grave error in the history of our country and globally. Choosing the gender of a child is not a simple decision. As mentioned before, manipulating embryos to select gender ultimately leads to discarding them, which is essentially a euphemism for aborting them. Are we mere experimental subjects of twisted genetic scientists? Join me to oppose and keep genetic scientists away from our children so that we can genuinely attain a utopia – not the artificial one that will arise if this bill is approved.

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