Oryx and Crake

Designing the Perfect Baby-The Promise of Perfection

Since the birth of Adam and Eve , man has conquered everything that he found around and inside him . He has celebrated every aspect of nature by capturing it to its advantage , conquered numerous diseases but only one thing he could not do was creation of a genetically human being which since centuries had only been Nature 's prodigy . But with the changing time and advancement in technology in gene therapy and genetic engineering , scientist claims to create a new race , which is far more superior

to the race born naturally . But this very notion of manipulating genes by the scientist community is shrouded in mystery and undue interference in nature can have lot more negative effects than the advantages . Therefore I propose that for the human welfare it is essential that in the name of eradicating undesirable traits in babies the scientific community should restrict the current manipulation of the human genetic code

Let us take an example of in vitro fertilization (IVF ) and cytoplasmic transfer . In vitro fertilization helps in determining the disease in child and in controlling genetic diss whereas cytoplasmic transfer discovered by Embryologist Jacques Cohen helps infertile women to conceive . In cytoplasmic transfer , cytoplasm inside the eggs in fertile donor is inserted in the patient eggs this means that child now has three genetic parents . But this system can have negative effects . The Embryologist inserts extra genetic material called mitochondrial DNA or Mt DNA from the donor but it can create complexities like female children can transmit different combination of mtDNA to their own off springs , without being aware of right matching type . Therefore due to the mismatch of mtDNA large number of children has developed "pervasive developmental dis

The technology is openly being used to modify genes and create "Designer baby , the term , which was coined by Maleka Merchant in 1971 This term transcends from science fiction movies , novels and weblogs into the Oxford English Dictionary , with the meaning "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 (Agar , Designer Babies : Ethical Considerations , Para .1 . Canadian author Margaret Atwood in her exotic science fiction Oryx and Crake , which she calls her adventure romance ' entrails us into the journey of this unique gift in human beings who with the help of discoveries in medical science and technology can reach to an extent of commercialization and co modification of human life and also increases gap between the rich and poor . With the help of Xenotransplantation and genetic engineering there is an entirely new creation of transgenic animals such as "wolvogs (hybrids between wolves and dogs "rakunks (racoon and skunk , and "pigoons (pigs and humans , for organ transplants . The Xenotransplantation can increase the sexual levels in prostitution and online child pornography . The novel extrapolates on the technology that has reached as far as modifying the genes according to the parents choice and...