Robyn's Blog: 2009

According to dictionary.com the official meaning for designer baby is : an infant created by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization in order to ensure the absence or presence of a particular gene or characteristic.

When I first heard the term "designer babies" I immediately thought of certain "so called" celebrities such as Octomom who now has fourteen children from the method of in-vitro fertilization and Kate Gosselin who has eight children and a popular reality show called Jon and Kate plus eight.At first I thought it would be cool to be able to pick and choose how your child would look (cause common everyone wants their child to be the best looking), but when I really thought about it, we as a society would take this opportunity and abuse it to the max. Many people in my opinion would not think through this entire process of altering certain traits of their child, they will be living in the moment and changing their child to what they perceive as beautiful at the time. Who knows in a couple of years we will have many blonde hair blue eyed children and the races probably would be diminished. We would then lose the unique quality each and every one of us carries and end up in a society like the one Adolf Hitler wanted. Now think this through, many fought against Hitler to save our nation from corruption but yet in our own way we are heading right there. Imagine the world with the majority being one race, other races will slowly die out because people are put under pressure to have the perfect child. What happens to the people who can't afford to change the traits of the child, are their children perceived as ugly? These are the questions you have to ask yourself.

Now even though I'm not all for the aspect of creating a designer baby (i.e. changing hair and eye colour) , I am for altering a child's trait if he/she has a disease that will harm them in anyway. For example if he/she has a trait for cancer, malaria or AIDS etc. and if this process gets rid of the disease without having harmful side affects and hurting the child in anyway, by all means do it! If this process is safe then we just might be one step ahead of these diseases and even closer to find a cure.

So, yes even though I don't totally agree with the idea of designer babies, the entire process has a positive aspect to it, if used in the right way. Now I don't mean because you might think changing your baby's eye colour to green from brown is the right thing to do you should go ahead and do it, NO! the process of altering traits in my opinion should be used only if your child is going to suffer a great deal from an illness in his/her lifetime.

Okay so lets re-cap, people in the world today have now figured out a way for you to pick and choose both the physical and internal traits of your child. Can you believe this? it's like plastic surgery without all the pain and recovery time. You might think, why not? if it's going to benefit your child, but think about it by you changing the natural features of your child you are taking away his/her true identity. You can no longer hear anyone say "she has your eyes" or "he is the splitting image of you", you might hear " where did he get those eyes from?" or "how come her hair is so curly?".

Now I heard that they might be putting laws in this process of creating "designer babies" and in my opinion that is the absolute best thing for world today. What do you think ?

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designer_baby

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989987,00.html

http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/designerdebate/

Human intervention has negatively affected the biodiversity of the ecosystems. Before our intervention the earth was serene and clean and now we have turned it into a waste land. Humans are the main contributer to global warming by our acts deforestation due to our rapid growth and constant pollution. Because of these selfish acts we don't realise that we are interfering with the life cycle. The more trees we decide to cut down results in many animals becoming homeless and eventually will become extinct. What we as humans fail to realise is, one disruption in the life cycle will affect everything else as well. It is like a domino effect, if one falls so will the others.

A few people have come to realise the dangers of losing biodiversity and are trying to change our ways and make a difference in the world. Many people are making "green" homes and office buildings, purchasing hybrid cars and recycling, etc. Even though this is a great thing the amount of pollution that is made daily out weighs the prevention of it. We should put a stop to this and preserve what is left on our earth.

POLLUTION !!!

Many causes of pollution including sewage and fertilizers contain nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. In excess levels, nutrients over stimulate the growth of aquatic plants and algae. Excessive growth of these types of organisms consequently clogs our waterways, use up dissolved oxygen as they decompose, and block light to deeper waters.

This, then, proves very harmful to aquatic organisms as it affects the respiration ability or fish and other invertebrates that reside in water.
Pollution is also caused when silt and other suspended solids, such as soil, washoff plowed fields, construction and logging sites, urban areas, and eroded river banks when it rains. Under natural conditions, lakes, rivers, and other water bodies undergo Eutrophication, an aging process that slowly fills in the water body with sediment and organic matter. When these sediments enter various bodies of water, fish respirationbecomes impaired, plant productivity and water depth become reduced, and aquatic organisms and their environments become suffocated. Pollution in the form of organic
material enters waterways in many different forms as sewage, as leaves and grass clippings, or as runoff from livestock feedlots and pastures. When natural bacteria and protozoan in the water break down this organic material, they begin to use up the oxygen dissolved in the water. Many types of fish and bottom-dwelling animals cannot survive when levels of dissolved oxygen drop below two to five parts per million. When this occurs, it kills aquatic organisms in large numbers which leads to disruptions in the food chain.

LOOK AT THESE PICTURES :

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/05/22/pollution-images-from-around-the-world/

DEFORESTATION !

*** Did You Know ***

Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forest an area larger than Greece and since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed.

HOW WE CAN STOP DEFORESTATION !

Raise awareness about the potential hazards that will accrue if deforestation continues unabated. Whenever in a group, converse on this topic and let people know.
Send e-mails to your friends and acquaintances, telling them about the practice of deforestation and its harmful effects. Ask them to forward it to others, to make everyone aware of the problem.
Make placards saying ‘Plant More Trees’, ‘Do Not Waste Paper’, ‘Stop Cutting Trees’, and the like. Try to get them placed at venues like the neighboring community, schools, colleges, restaurants, etc.
Do not waste paper at all. Instead, try to recycle paper as much as you can. Try to imbibe the same sense in those around you, including your parents, children, siblings, friends, and so on.
Plant as many trees as possible. You can enlist the help of those around you and plant trees in the public places, like parks, gardens, play areas, etc. If possible, plant some of them in your house too.
Make notes against deforestation and stick them on your desk in the office or pin it on the notice board in your school. This way, you will make people realize how important it is to stop deforestation.
If possible, try to arrange conferences and meeting to enlist support, of even strangers, for the cause. You can also get a local celebrity to tell people why and how to stop deforestation.
Try to convince the local counselor to introduce the idea of implementing legislations in parliament, which would prevent the continued practice of deforestation.