Debates, and Babies, and DNA. Oh my!

Should parents be allowed to change their kids DNA? My vote is no. Definitely not. Not unless it’s the only way to cure a disease and even then it’s incredibly risky. And of course, I will be hit with a wave of “why?”’s from my fellow classmates. Why? Because DNA is shuffled together in a very specific order. If you were to change just one section, it could cause a mutation in the genes, which in turn would cause issues in DNA replication and transcription, and then amino acid chains wouldn’t be put together correctly. This is something we were discussing in Science class, what, today? Plus, if you were to change the child’s DNA you would have to change it when the child is still a single cell (i.e. up to 24 hours after conception, as the cell will ball and grow into just a few cells after this point very quickly. [Source: http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/understanding-conceptionC]). Again with a why? Well, after the single cell divides into multiple cells, it becomes harder and harder to change the DNA in every single cell. If you don’t change every single cell then there is a likely chance that the child will be born with a birth defect or, that the child won’t be born at all as the other cells of the embryo reject the one cell with the different DNA. And since the cells are specialized for different jobs when they form the hollow ball, this could cause a heart or the lungs of the child to be rejected by the rest of the body because the other cells simply don’t recognize them as from the same person. If you REALLY want to determine exactly how your child looks, and all that jazz, you might be better off with in vitro fertilization.
Also, in the realm of opinion. I would think that deciding how your kid looks takes some of the fun and surprise out of all of it. Have you ever had a family member get pregnant? Be it an Aunt or a sibling, you always sit around wondering what your new cousin/niece/nephew will look like. “Will he/she look like Aunt____? or more like Uncle____? Will they like the same things I do? Will I get to babysit them?” etc. And I know from experience. My Aunt had a baby fairly recently and all we did for weeks before her daughter was born wondering about her, what she was gonna be like.