Don't be scared , it's just a mask.

One of my amateur sketches that I did during  General Studies Lecture in school.

Sugar Skull make up By Rebecca Geeves 

Sugar Skull make-up 

Earlier today my friend did the sugar skull make up on me for her art project and I must say it looked awesome :) A bit scary maybe , but that was the point. In some mysterious way that my brain works I began thinking of all the different masks we wear every day. Even the most open people can't help but pretend to be happy or interested in a story just to be polite , even the most arrogant people but can't help to put on a mask of 'I don't give a F@!?/' when they're upset or really care about what others think of them. There are so many unofficial pretences, yet everyone knows how it's not acceptable to just shout out whatever you are thinking in the middle of a street, and even though I probably would never dare to do actually do it , the amount of times I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing in a quiet classroom or bursting into a song in town centre is ridiculous. You probably think I'm crazy now, but think about it , son't you ever wish you could just express what you are thinking/feeling at the spur of the moment? For those of you who know what I mean , please subscribe and I promise to keep rambling about my , as some would say , strange opinions :)

Living proof that weird=Awesome! (Johnny Depp)

Okay , so I might have a slight obsession with Johnny Depp and his weird films , such as Edward Scissorhands, but you can't blame me , okay? Just watch it yourself if you haven't already and be amazed be the surreal setting and the storyline itself. I't no secret that many people find Johnny Depp , let's say rather attractive and why would they not? At the moment he's 48 and looks amazing , he's one of the people that ages with skill :D In his 'youth' he was in 'Benny&Joon' EPIC Film , one of my favourites :') You can tell that he's a nutter from the moment he comes on the screen doing random tricks on the street for the public's amusement. Long story short he's a brilliant actor , an attractive man and a complete weirdo which makes him even more awesome!

Build A Bear , Why Not Design A Baby?

Sooner or later children want to know a reason for everything “why is the sky blue?”, “why is the grass green?” and “why is my hair dark like mummy’s but not blonde like daddy’s?” Of course most of us find the answers in biology classes and it all seems pretty clear when teachers explain what is a dominant and recessive gene that controls our physical features. And it has always occurred to me that it’s all a ‘natural selection’ and until about a decade ago, so did the majority of population. However on Thursday, 6 January, 2000 BBC news has announced that “The power to change the shape and destiny of the human species - to design babies to order - will be within the grasp of genetic scientists in just a couple of decades” and here we are, almost a dozen years later deciding on what gender a child is going to be, before it’s even born.

If I was given a choice of having a disabled or a healthy child, by no means I would pick a healthy baby, simply to make it easier for him/her in life and avoid discrimination in society. However there is an example of a complete opposite view on life with disability , a deaf lesbian couple in Chicago wanted to use PDG (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) to choose among the embryo’s they’d fertilized for one that inherited a form of deafness. That is their own personal choice and there’s no law to stop parents from making a certain choice in relevance of their child’s genes.  Whether it’s right or wrong in terms of morality is a completely different question. In contemporary Britain it’s legal to abort an unwanted baby up to 24 weeks , and up to the moment of birth if the baby has a ‘serious’ disability according to 1967 Abortion Act. Personally I think that is absolutely appalling, however if there’s a possibility of conceiving a healthy baby in the first place, why not take it? In society today we tend to get carried away with new developments and science doesn’t seem to see the line. I mean yes of course it’s great to find something new and improve someone’s life , especially by giving them the opportunity to be accepted by society more easily and therefore giving them a greater chance to succeed in life.

Having said all that, yes I think scientists have made an incredible step forward in a short period of time , so does that mean within another decade or so there is going to be an opportunity to design baby’s face and body from feature to feature, control his/her personality and intelligence? If so, the consequences may be horrendous, and there is no turning back. What I am trying to say is with all the great, comes great responsibility, and the nation may not be ready for that. Third world countries have access to all the contemporary equipment and weapons, but perhaps the society hasn’t developed enough to take such responsibility and wars are happening all across the world in consequence of a rushed development. My point is that ‘designer babies’ may affect society and family life in a way that many may not expect. For example, would it be possible to buy sperm or eggs for certain genes and will the donation be anonymous? Also would it have to be nuclear family or can it be a single parent? I think this development may result in increased discrimination towards disabled people, because in majority parents tend to follow the standard outlook on easier life as a healthy person, but the whole process already costs approximately $50 000 in US. This makes the opportunity exclusive and may be more popular within middle class that can afford such ‘luxury’, therefore in half a century, disabled people may be generalised as working/lower class with questionable ability to achieve high goals in life.

I am not a religious person and do not believe in any version of ‘God’. But all around me there are people that have strong beliefs about ‘the gift of life’. Many believers may see this development as a great sin, which could possibly result in negative atmosphere within the government and religious sub-culture, riots and eventually civil war. Yes that is taking it to the extreme but that’s the reality of any major development in science that’s not accepted by the nation.

Instantly I have questions such as “how will the government deal with the issue” Media has a major influence in everyday’s life and the way our opinions are formed, “will they promote designer babies , or go against it?” It is all a free choice of what to believe and what opinion to form, so if we have freedom to make a choice about how many children to have, whether or not to terminate a pregnancy and what values to teach our own children as long as it’s within the law, why not make a choice to improve child’s life? All the complications aside I believe there is no reason to throw away this opportunity.

Build a bear; why not design a baby, right? At the end of the day I want to be in control of my own choices, I want to know whatever I did or however I reacted to a certain event was because I chose to do so, and if the foundation for that lays in the set of my genes then I’d be glad my parents cared enough to select genes that would help me in life, however, at the same time I would feel violated and artificial. With all the benefits that may come from ‘designer babies’ there are still many complications and imp not sure that we are ready to take on this change, because it’s developing so fast. Perhaps a century later your grand grandchildren are going to be a generation of bio robots as a consequence of how we deal with ‘designer  babies’ issue.