Genetically Designing Babies

Genetically Designing Babies  

Oxford University Professor Julian Savulescu said it should be a "moral obligation" to design babies as it would lead them to become "ethically better children", according to the news source The Telegraph. The topic of genetically designing babies has been a controversial political issue and the specialist Savulescu explained that "we are now in the middle of a genetic revolution and that although screening, for all but a few conditions, remained illegal it should be welcomed, according to the Telegraph. While some continue to criticize that genetic alterations is playing against the natural cordial of pregnancy and birth, I personally believe that the parents who can afford it should genetically design their own babies. My target audience for this issue would be married couples or couples in general who plan to have a baby. 
Let me begin with explaining ‘what is meant by genetically designing babies’? Bionet defines advanced reproductive techniques that involve using In-Vitro Fertilization or IVF to fertilize eggs with sperm in 'test-tubes' outside the mother's body in a laboratory as genetically designed babies. These techniques allow doctors and parents to reduce the chance that a child will be born with a genetic disorder.

At the moment it is only legally possible to carry out two types of advanced reproductive technologies on humans. The first involves screening embryos for a genetic disease: in which only selected embryos are implanted back into the mother's womb. This is called Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). The second technique is choosing the type of sperm that will fertilize an egg: this is used to determine the sex and the genes of the baby.

               "The pre-implantation genetic diagnosis" (PGD) technique used by the Fertility Institutes to test embryos before implantation in the womb, which has restricted diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's and even HIV/AIDS and other genetic diseases to pass onto the offspring.

               Let’s consider an example of this, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), in March 2002 “a married 30-year-old geneticist who would almost certainly lose her mind to early-onset Alzheimer's disease by the age of 45 chose to have her embryos tested in vitro for the diseased gene. She then implanted only the embryo without the gene into her womb. The result was the birth of a healthy baby girl who would not suffer Alzheimer's in her 40s. The mother in this case certainly knows the consequences of having a child with the diseased gene as her father, a sister, and a brother has already succumbed to early Alzheimer's.” There are several other cases in which PGD has proved to be very effective in eliminating diseases at the embryonic stage.  Therefore, for the betterment of the child we have attained a stage of genetic revolution where thousands of parents have protected their children by eliminating deadly diseases.

              According to the fertility organization March of Dimes, “1 out of every 100 Americans is born with a serious genetic defect.  Approximately 20,994 California babies are born with a birth defect annually. There are more than 4,000 known birth defects. Also, the birth defects are the leading cause of death in the first year of life and account for more than 1 in 5 infant deaths. For babies born with birth defects, estimated lifetime costs total 48 billion.” By spending $18,000 and using PGD if these diseases can be prevented in babies before birth; So, why shouldn’t the society be granted the privilege to save their families and genetically modify their babies?

            Another use of genetically designing babies is to choose the sex of the embryo using advanced reproductive techniques like IVF. In this procedure, the fertilized egg grows for a few days before a single cell is removed and tested to find out either the sex of the embryo or if abnormal genes are present. Doctors then choose a healthy female embryo without the faulty gene and implant this into the mother's womb to grow into a healthy baby. If you are wondering the need for gender selection? Determining the sex of an embryo can be useful because some genetic diseases, like hemophilia and Muscular Dystrophy, only active in male babies. If the parents have a history of male-related disease, then techniques such as PGD can be used.

               Now some may chose to argue saying that gender selection would be playing against Mother Nature. But my question is what is wrong in choosing the sex of your child? Parents have the reproductive right to select the gender of their children. They are free to select the gender of the child and shape their families; family balancing is a choice that parents must have.

In 2009 CBS news covered a story about Sharla and Shane Miller of America who finally gave birth to two healthy twin girls after having three boys. The fourth time she wanted a guarantee that she would have a girl. “when she stumbled across the Web site of ‘The Fertility Institutes,’ which offered 99.9 percent chances of having a girl. When asked aren't three boys enough? "They are. They're totally everything I could ever want. And I would never replace them and I'd never change anything I've ever done for them," says Sharla. "But they're so wonderful. Why not have two daughters that will be just as wonderful as they are?"

               So would be future parents, to sum this up, I would say having babies is a dream for all couples and to protect them for diseases is their right. Questions are always raised to most of the scientific developments, but I think it is only fair to accept them for our own betterment and protect our future. 

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis
Topic :-  Ron Paul debates with Stephen Baldwin on the topic of legalization of Marijuana

This debate Ron Paul debates with Stephen Baldwin on the topic of legalization of Marijuana on the Larry King live and this took place on 3/13/09. Stephen Baldwin is against the legalization whereas Ron Paul is with the legalization of marijuana. Ron Paul says that “drugs are dangerous but there are many things that are dangerous but who should regulate danger?” On the other hand Stephen Baldwin who has acted in two very popular marijuana films Half Baked and Bio Domed, says its common sense, marijuana leads to doing worse things.

Smoking marijuana at a younger age will lead to alcohol abuse and harder drug. Ron Paul compares marijuana to nicotine, he says that it is the most addictive drug in market and yet nobody talks about it. He also adds that the drug cartel benefits from the government’s action of not legalizing marijuana. Stephen Baldwin argues that by legalizing marijuana the number of accidents will increase. Another point that Ron Paul made was that nonviolent people are caught with marijuana whereas rapist and killer roam free, and most of the time when they come out of prison they have become violent. Ron Paul says that the war on drugs has become hysterical.

I liked the way Ron Paul addressed this issue, because he supported his claim that legalizing marijuana is a good thing but providing good supporting examples. He even compared this issue with the issue of alcohol, nicotine and production of Hemp in USA. On the other hand he was confident in stating his points, his facial expressions were bold. He was straight to the point and gave a broader perspective to the whole issue.

Press Release

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California State Universities Tuition Overview

The financial structure of the California State University System seems devastated. Every year the students wait anxiously like spectators returning to a magician’s show, for the miraculous trick and they are certainly surprised by the continuous tuition increase by the CSU board of trustees.

  The challenging economic conditions and the recurring tuition increase continue to influence students' college experiences. The proportion of students using loans to help pay for college remains high, at 53.1 percent, according to the 2010 Cooperative Institutional research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey, UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year colleges and universities.

This article gives an overview about the tuition fee hikes from the academic years 2010-2012, and the implications of this on students. The budget cuts in the CSU system has resulted in shutting of several classes in these three years, which has made it even more challenging for the students to get admissions and even if they do, getting the desired classes is another issue.

Despite the severe trimming in the recent budget cuts and alternative revenues, the California State University trustees approved a nine percent tuition increase for the Fall session of 2011. By voting 9 to 6 the CSU board of trustees had raised tuition by about $500 for Fall 2011, bringing the annual fees to about $7,017, according to Los Angeles Times.

The increasing cost of higher education not just poses a significant barrier to college access but also causes a lot of pressure and stress, for students today. Students and families work very hard in being resourceful and strategic to pay the college tuition and when a parent collects money for his child’s education they stick with a budget in mind.Education should be viewed as a privilege and not as a burden. Unfortunately affording education is more of a burden than anything else.

In November 2010, the CSU system approved a $105 fee increase for students in the spring and a total of $444 for the next year, equaling $222 per semester, reports Daily Sundial. Students were alerted of the fee increases through notices on their portal and were asked to pay the amount within a month.

Rajat Kumar, a computer science major, an international undergraduate student at CSU, Northridge said, “I almost had a nervous breakdown because I could not think of a way to pay the amount of tuition increase within a month.”

Rajat added, “when I joined this university in Spring 2009, I paid $6,707 for 13 units and now in spring 2012, I paid $7,484 for 13 units.” Sharing his struggle Rajat says, “just like any other international student I came to US aspiring to gain the best education, but with the consistent increase in tuition I don’t think I can afford education here anymore.”

“We owned a small scale business in India, but I lost my education sponseror, my father last year. As he was the only earning man in my family my mother now has to work in a boutique to support me here. Being an international student I cannot work off campus and jobs on campus want to employee work study students. Losing my father, increasing tuition and maintaining a good academic performance is too much of stress for me to handle and this has affected my health as well. Last semester as a result to increased stress I developed a skin abnormality called scalp psoriasis. I have been taking help from the counseling services on campus to help me be mentally and emotionally stable,” said Mr. Kumar.

            “Stress is a major concern when students have to keep up good academic standing and have to work hard to collect enough funds to keep up with the increasing tuition. If students are arriving in college already overwhelmed and with lower reserves of emotional health, faculty, deans and administrators should expect to see more consequences of stress, such as higher levels of poor judgment around time management, alcohol consumption and academic motivation,” says John H. Pryor, director of Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) in the 2012 Cooperative Institutional research Program Freshman Survey, UCLA's annual survey of the nation's entering students at four-year colleges and universities.

First-year college students' displayed the lowest self-ratings of their emotional health in 2012. “It also mentions that only 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was in the ‘highest 10 percent’ or ‘above average,’ a drop of 3.4 percentage points from 2009 and a significant decline from the 63.6 percent who placed themselves in those categories when self-ratings of emotional health were first measured in 1985,” according to the 2010 CIRP survey.

The 2011-12 Freshman Norms report is based on the responses of 2,01,818 first-time, full-time students at 279 of the nation's baccalaureate colleges and universities. The data have been statistically adjusted to reflect the responses of the 1.5 million first-time, full-time students entering four-year colleges and universities as first-year students onwards 2010.

Karen Green a business major at CSUN says “I work two jobs and I’m also a full time student, yet I struggle every semester to pay my tuition.” I don’t know what more could I do, I barely have time for myself and somehow this pressure has taken away the fun to studying said Karen.

“I’m just a junior but I’m already ready for graduation, I don’t want to study anymore. I started at CSUN in Fall 2008 and since then I haven’t been able to enroll in for more than 12 units. The reason for that is, sometimes either the classes are full by the time my registration dates comes or I don’t have enough money to enroll in for more than 12 units, Karen adds.”

With the failure of the government to support the CSU systems by not proving enough funds, looks like the students still believe in the quality and college experience with CSU.  So how is CSUN managing to control the expenses and costs on campus?

To begin with, to control the race of registering for the classes required and provide equal opportunity for  all students to get the desired units; CSUN has rationalized the registration by limiting enrollment to 13 credits in first rounds of registration.

According to a 2011-2012 report by CSUN entitled ‘A look back A look Ahead’, “Estimating technology savings is hard because the system does not code expenditures helpfully. Still we estimate that we can save several million dollars over two to three years by replacing individual printers with a few networked ones, converting open labs either to thin clients or wireless/plug-in bring-your-own, and moving to virtual labs, where feasible, to save on breakage and space itself. We also are centralizing servers in IT to leverage security, facilitate shared hardware, and scale service. We are working with IT on vision to clarify priorities.”

Hence the question stands, will this reoccurring CSU tuition increase continue or will there be a cap on the tuition hikes?

 "The Proposition 30 ballot initiative was approved by voters in the November 6, 2012 election. As a result, the California State University will implement the tuition fee contingency plan as previously approved by the Board of Trustees. The California State University will roll back tuition fees to 2011-12 fee levels, retroactive to the fall 2012 term," according to the CSU budget central.

But it's not the end of the story, this momentary cap on tuition is for a reason, "facing a nearly $16 billion deficit, the legislature and the governor have adopted a state budget that keeps the CSU’s budget essentially flat for this year, with one important caveat: If the governor’s tax measure on the November ballot fails, the CSU will face an additional $250 million mid-year “trigger” cut. This means the CSU will have lost almost $1.2 billion or 39 percent of its state support since 2007-08," according to the CSU budget central.

For the academic year 2012-13 "the CSU has been meeting and holding consultative discussions with its stakeholders to gather input and feedback on budget options. If the CSU does face the $250 million “trigger” cut, we will have to look at a range of options including administrative efficiencies, student tuition fee increases, changes in health care benefits cost-sharing (subject to negotiation with employee bargaining units) and campus-specific strategies," said Chancellor Charles B. Reed, according to the CSU budget central.

Yes, the whole CSU education systems feels as if it is a board game and the students are subject to dice who are rolled and exposed to budget cuts, tuition increase and of course stress. The unfortunate part of this game is that there is no winner.

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