Designer Babies
Summary
Medical science has made tremendous progress over the years and genetic engineering is one of its most amazing manifestations. Prof. Lee Silver, geneticist from Princeton University, enlightens about the process of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis wherein parents would be able to select the embryo which contains the combination of genes from parents that they want to see in their child. It may happen that the desired genes may not be present in either of the parents. But those genes can be acquired externally and infused in the embryos to implant the desired traits. Although it is still in the experimental stage with animals, this technique has the potential to alter the genetic blueprint of humans forever. The process is inefficient but it may be only a matter of time before it catches the fancy of the people who can afford it. People would be willing to pay for the increased probability of success for their children but there would be definite implications for the social differences between the rich and the poor class.
Related Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahs2W-TafYQ
Keywords: medical science, Genetic Engineering, Prof. Lee Silver, geneticist, Princeton University, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, embryo, Genes, genetic blueprint, social differences, chromosomes, Human Genome
