Unit 1: Brave New World? (1ère AMC)

Design your baby

Text A

The document under study is an extract from a newspaper, published in 2010 in CHS Globe online.

It is about someone who would like to design their babies. In fact, it is possible to create the “perfect” baby with particular physical traits, to have a baby with a high IQ and no diseases.

Firstly, the medical objectives are to prevent certain genetic illnesses. Besides, it can also be to make sure to have a healthy embryo. Therefore, the real purposes would be to improve the condition of the human race. Moreover, it would enable gender selection. On top of that, it could also be for cosmetic purposes.

To conclude, on one hand, even if this type of breakthrough can eradicate sicknesses, on the other hand it may create a form of segregation between the designer babies and the normal babies, the latter would be downgraded.

 

Text B

The document under study is an extract from a newspaper published in 2010 in USA Today.

It is about the story of Molly Nash and her family. Molly is a teenager who was born with a rare disease which made her destined to die before the age of 7. Nevertheless, she was cured/ healed thanks to her brother who donated some of his bone marrow to save her. In fact, Adam is a designer baby who was genetically created to fit perfectly in order to save Molly. He was therefore a medicine baby. People must have been surprised, shocked, appalled upon discovering his story around his birth.

To conclude, Molly’s story is significant/important to scientific progress because a medicine baby can save someone from a terminal sickness thanks to the PGD technique.

Homework: Learn the lesso,