Thursday, 8 October 2009

INITIAL IDEAS

After deciding that I am going to base negotiated practice on the authorial brief, which will be producing a body of work focusing on a social, political or ethical issue I have been looking at the top ethical issues in the lime light at present. 

These include topics such as Abortion, Animal Rights, Human Cloning, Poverty, Euthanasia, War and Genetics. All of which I know give me the opportunity to produce pieces that could be quite controversial because of the high profile these issues have in the media today. Looking on the BBC ethics website reading up on these issues as a starting point, got the ideas flowing which would lead to outcomes such as poster campaigns, books, or editorial pieces. 

Looking at genetics and the issues surrounding cloning I came across the term 'Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis' more widely known as 'Designer babies'. Instantly this intrigued me as read information about the topic, reading facts that amazed me, I knew this would develop into a great project. 

With huge amounts of controversy surrounding this issue, about what is right or wrong, and how far should it be allowed to be developed and used, plus the possibilities it holds for determining the state of the future of human race it is going to be the base of my project. 

"PGD was first developed to allow couples at risk of passing on genetic disease like Downs Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis to have children not affected by it"- however this has continued to be developed to the stage where scientists can now determine the sex of the baby and even 'clone' to produce a saviour sibling. This has recently been portrayed by Jodi Picoults publication 'My Sisters Keeper' which is also been released to film. 

The question is where does this stop? 

I am going to produce a campaign where I will promoting being able to design your own baby. Where parents will be able to select the sex, hair colour, height, IQ etc. In a world that could be not far away where genetic enhancements is the normality, where a race of super humans is built. 

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