Humans crave for something new.

The desire to understand everything keeps humans to what a

seemingly unendless journey towards the search for the patterns and knowledge. Inventions,
discoveries, and developments have been made over the years, may it be from simple papers, plans,
buildings, animals, plants, and ultimately, it has reached humans.

The term "designer baby" refers to one whose genome has been altered to achieve the desired trait.
There are three current technologies that enable these designer babies to exist. The simplest and the
only process known to have been used in humans safely among the three methods is the
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. This method eliminates the need for gene editing instead, it allows
you to choose from already viable eggs and decide which one will proceed for implantation. The
remaining two methods on the other hand, TALENs (Transcription Activator-like Effector Nucleases) and
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), allows edits to be made in any part
of the genome and are not yet deemed to be safe on humans. Although Preimplantation Genetic
Diagnosis is the only method that is safe to use, it still provides a number of options for parents to
choose from. The egg can be screened for gender, appearance, intelligence, disease and personality.
And among these, the screening for disease is the most common. Manipulation of other aspects is still
considered to be controversial and unethical for most countries. Another method mentioned is the 3-
parent baby. A three-parent baby is a human offspring produced from the genetic material of one man
and two women through the use of assisted reproductive technologies, specifically mitochondrial
manipulation or replacement technologies and three-person in vitro fertilization (Rogers et al., 2019).

The video briefly and clearly explained what designer babies are and how they are made to exist. It also
tapped on the possible benefits and dangers of designer babies to human health and the society. The
video intends to inform and influence a wide range of audiences as possible, hence, the use of animated
video. Animated video is a great way to keep the viewers interested because of its colorful scheme. And
because the topic can be expensive if real equipments and humans are used in the video, presenting
using an animated video is a cost-effective alternative. Youtube is a great medium for the author to
disseminate this sort of information because it is accessible for almost all internet users. Also, the words
and sentences in the video exhibits a cohesive structure and are comprehensible even for people
without the expertise in the given subject. Few examples are also used to explain each method
effectively but the video failed to state any credible source of those information.

Scientifically speaking, it is a great achievement for humans to be able to obtain the knowledge for
practicing the alteration of genomes specially on humans. But when it comes to societal ethics, it is not
an appropriate deed to change something on humans that could lead to further unfairness and damage
in the society. According to Minchin (2019), genetics are not always a hundred percent sure, which
means that it is very likely possible that error may come up at some point in the future in the case of
designer babies. And these might even lead to death. Limitations and rules should be set to avoid ethical
violations. Something that is feasible does not automatically means that it should be done.

References:
Minchin, S. (2019, August 11). "Pros and Cons of Having a Designer Baby". Retrieved February 29, 2020
from https://explorebiotech.com/pros-cons-designer-baby/

Rogers. K. et al. (2019, August 23). "Three-parent Baby". Retrieved February 29, 2020 from
https://www.britannica.com/science/three-parent-baby