Moral Code: "Designer Babies" by Julia Santos

In the Upfront Magazine, “Designer Babies,” the author, Patricia Smith talks about how scientists are learning how to genetically engineer babies’ traits and genes for both medical and social reasons. Medically, this will be good for society because it will help prevent certain diseases that result from genetic defects. However, changing and determining babies’ more physical and personal traits (such as height, eye color, IQ, etc.) challenges my moral code, and I believe that it is unethical and unnatural. The first reason that I think that this is unethical is because it would not be good for society. Eventually, if choosing babies’ traits became normal, there would not be any individuality anymore in society, and more and more people will feel that they have to look a certain way in order to be accepted. There would be no more flaws, or talent, or distinctive personalities. I think that, even though we may not love them, our flaws help to make up who we are. And even sometimes, we, ourselves, are the only ones that see certain flaws in ourselves. People determining what they think is “perfect,” and putting it into another human being is very wrong. The second reason that I disagree with this is because I believe that there is no “right” way for a person to look. It’s just a matter of people’s opinions. Social media portrays that the celebrities and models that you see in magazines are perfect; perfect hair, perfect personality, perfect look, and the perfect body. It tricks society into feeling that in order to be beautiful, we need to look a certain way. However, I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that no one look is perfect. In addition, I think that fate should decide what a person ends up looking like, and not us. In conclusion, genetically engineering a baby in order to give it desired physical or personal traits, goes against what I believe in. I believe that people should be born naturally and that everyone has flaws, even in a utopian world, there will still be flaws. I believe that as we grow up, we learn to embrace our flaws, and by changing them, society would be ruined.

sonnet by julia santos

shall I compare thee to a dream?
you are like the night and day
we make a good team
when I wake up, I wish you'd stay

I don't want to leave
All day, I want to stay in bed
I dream all day. just to relieve
"I was to stay here forever" I said

As the final hour is here
I must finally wake
leaving brings a tear
I am up, calm as a lake

martin espada essay by julia santos

Julia Santos 811

Martin Espada is a well known, educated and respected Puerto Rican poet from New

York City. His poetry often deals with major issues and have recurring themes. One theme in

particular has been seen in Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, The New Bathroom Policy at English

High School, and Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877. This strong

theme in Espada’s poetry is the idea of power, and the abuse of it.


For instance, in Espada’s poem, The New Bathroom Policy at English High School, the

principal abuses his power over the school by banning Spanish speaking in the bathrooms. He

has no excuse to do so besides the speaking of Spanish, and hearing his name in these

conversations, "constipating him". The principal in this poem is abusing his power as the

principal, cutting of the Spanish speakers in the school of a location where they can express their

culture and may speak the language most comfortable to them (if they learned Spanish as a first

language).


Additionally, an example of the theme of the abuse of power in Espada’s poetry is in his

poem, Revolutionary Spanish Lesson. The people mispronouncing the narrators name are either

using the power of the narrators name and purposefully mispronouncing it to frustrate him, or

just not taking the time to ask them how his or her name is pronounced. When you have a choice

to make, like the subjects of the poem mispronouncing the narrators name again, and again, you

have power over the situation. Being careless with this power to make better choices is still an

abuse of a, even if small power much of the time, power. Then, the speaker goes on about

ridiculous actions that he'll complete if any one mispronounces his name. For example, "…hijack

a bus load/ of Republican tourists/ from Wisconsin,/ force them to chant/ anti-American slogans/

in Spanish…". This represents Espada's recurring theme of abuse of power.

Lastly, abuse of power is a significant theme in Espadas poem, Two Mexicanos Lynched

in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877. This poem talks about the lynching of two Mexicanos

by whites in California. Not only is the extreme racism and prejudice obvious in this situation,

the “gringos” in the poem had much more power than these Mexicanos. There were forty of them

present to lynch only the two Mexicanos, which means that the Mexicanos were outnumbered to

fight the "gringos" who were trying to kill them. The whites were a higher status and had a better

situation than the Mexicanos. It’s murder in every sense of the word, and all murders or deaths

are terrible, but the way it was committed makes it even worse. The white people in the poem

abused their physical and social powers over the Mexicanos.


 In conclusion, the abuse of power is a huge and abundant theme in Martin Espada’s

poetry. He uses it clearly in three different poems, The New Bathroom Policy at English High

School, Revolutionary Spanish Lesson, and Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California,

May 3, 1877. Espada used many different forms of abuse of power in his poems, showing that no

matter what kind of power one abuses, it’s still wrong if you do it for the wrong reasons.