Fun with Genetics!

Hey! Sorry that I have been slacking on the posts but I recently started a summer class to kill some time. I realized that after graduation that I had a lot of free time and I ain't no housewife. For reals, I try real hard to keep busy and avoid cooking, cleaning and any other household stuff. I mean I clean up, I don't live in filth but let's just say that if my cleaning got a grade it would be a D for the minimal job and lots of bitching I did. I am taking a Psychology class, Human Growth and Development. So far the teacher seems pleasant and the class seems talkative and opinionated. Today was an interesting topic. We were learning about procedures that initially helped childless couples or couples with severe genetic diseases have healthy children that are now being used to produce "designer" babies. "Designer" babies have the traits that the parents desire in their children...like eye color, sex or height, stuff like that. Personally, I have no problem with it maybe because this is America and we are a capitalist nation and if you have tens of thousands of dollars to produce the next living Barbie doll while she is still an egg go for it but buyer beware. Even though you found a nuclear scientist supermodel who can donate eggs to you and mix with some sperm from a Calvin Klein underwear model Nobel Prize winner there are about 64 trillion possible combinations of those genes. Meaning that you can get the most beautiful, smartest child alive or a pile of mud that grunts at you. That's the fun with genetics that whole crossing over of chromosomes is a bitch. What about cloning, you say? Well, in essence if you clone yourself, it's like your identical twin but the environment within the womb and during child development also mold the child but genetics is a strong force. Chances are that the child would be just like you at that any age. This goes to that whole nature vs. nuture argument. Which molds a child more it's genome or the whole emotional and physical care that was provided? I believe your genetics has a heavier hand in who you are, more than nuturing. An example is that twin baby boy who lost his penis in a circumcision accident. The theory back then was that who you are was nutured/programmed by the parents. The baby was nipped and tuck and made into a girl and was brought up to be a girl. Later on in life when the girl was told that he was genetically and anatomically born male not only was he pissed for being forced in the female gender role but changed his gender identity back to a man and later married. I totally forget the name of this case but it's pretty famous. I am just being lazy but I can find out if you really want me to. Anyways, your body is programmed a certain way by your genes and no amount of nuturing could change it. This poor kid went through years of hell because he felt he was a boy and everyone kept telling him he was a girl like that would help stop the alarm bells going off in his head telling him that something was wrong. Overall, I have nothing against any of these procedures but I am against lying to your kids. Let them make their own decisions. Some people argue against cloning because they say clones won't have souls. Well, I believe that this is a stupid argument because if this line of reasoning were true then any persons developed from a monozygotic egg would not have a soul since the essentially they are clones of each other. Telling twins, triples, etc. that they have no soul will just piss them off. They'll look at you stupidly and then tell you to stop being a jackass. As a twin myself, I really hate being asked stupid twin questions because it makes me seriously want to buy a stun gun and watch them twitch when I shock them for asking...aversion therapy works, try it some time. I believe that all these procedures that are so scandalous are being used to help childless couples have children, all they want is to have a baby and I can't judge them for that.