A brief presentation on Engineering the 'Perfect Baby' by Rituparna Dey, proudly presented by Biomedicz (www.biomedicz.com)

1. ENGINEERING THE ‘ PERFECT ’
BABY
PRESENTED BY :
RITUPARNA DEY
BME
Netaji Subhash
Engineering College

2. WHAT IS A PERFECT BABY
 A baby whose genetic makeup has been
artificially selected by genetic engineering to
ensure the presence or absence of particular genes
or characteristics.
 It can be selected in order to eradicate a particular
defect , or to ensure that a particular gene is
present

3. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GENITICS
 Dominate alleles cover up the recessive alleles and recessive
alleles only show up if no dominates alleles are present.
 Alleles of two parents combine to express traits in offspring
and they will both have the same traits but whatever trait
is the dominant trait that one will show up.

4. PERFECT BABIES TODAY
 To date, genetic technology has
only been used to treat serious
disease in children
 Discoveries about the influence
of genes on human traits opens
the possibility of transferring
these techniques to human beings
 Developing technology makes it
possible to alter anything from
gender to disease, and eventually
appearance, personality, and IQ
 Some believe that parents will
inevitably want to choose their
children’s genes, thus creating
designer babies

5. HOW IS A PERFECT BABY
CREATED
 An embryo is created by
in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
 A single cell is removed
from that embryo within
the first 5 days of its
creation
 The cell is genetically
tested
 The parents decide
whether to discard the
embryo or implant it in
the mother's womb

6. REAL-LIFE SITUATION
 His parents were both carriers of Fanconi Anemia and
passed this genetic disorder onto their daughter, Molly.
 To save Molly, a bone marrow transplant was needed.
 Doctors fertilized several of Adam’s mother’s eggs, but
only implanted the one that was both genetically healthy
and a match as a donor.
 This means the other embryos that could have grown into
human beings were killed.
 Now, Molly is healthy and has been given a second chance
at life.

7. ADVANTAGES
 Allows couples who can’t conceive normally to have
children
 Allows couples to balance gender in their families
 Increases the livelihood of a healthy baby
 Reduces chances of miscarriage
 Can be used to save lives

8. DISADVANTAGES
Safety concerns:
 Can lead to ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome
(OHSS)
 Unskilled lab technology could damage embryo during
biopsy
 The removal of cells from eight-cell embryos has
implications for the well-being of people created by
PGD

9. Moral and ethical concerns:
 Too much like playing God
 Killing embryos that could have grown into humans
Social concerns:
 These genetic techniques are very expensive.
 Genetically enhanced people may start to feel superior to
those who haven’t been enhanced
DISADVANTAGES

10. CONCLUSION
 Using genetic techniques we can help prevent certain
genetic diseases. This both saves the children from
suffering and reduces the cost and emotional strain of
looking after an ill child
 Although there are some benefits of designing a baby I
believe the risks are even more greater as it can leave a
child with harmful virus diseases and mutations, moreover
it can also hurt them emotionally by making them feel that
they are obligated to perform to the ability that they are
created for.

11. Do you want to design your
‘perfect’ baby???