Sign the International Declaration Against Legalisation of Human Genetic Modification
Stop Designer Babies!
Campaigning for a UK and global ban on Human Genetic Modification (HGM)
There are some experiments that must never be done.
In 2018 ‘rogue scientist’, He Jiankui, announced the birth of the world’s first Genetically Modified (GM) babies in China. On a wave of global outrage, he was sent to prison for 3 years. But a small group of influential (and equally irresponsible) scientists refused to consider demands from civil society for a global ban. Later it became clear that they had egged him on. And it also transpired that, predictably, He had made a slew of unexpected genetic changes in those children’s genes, the health impacts of which are still unknown.
Because of the terrible history of eugenics, there has long been an international consensus that human cloning and Human Genetic Modification (HGM), always a holy grail of eugenicists, should not be permitted. But in 2025, right-wing tech billionaires close to Donald Trump announced they were starting companies to commercially exploit the technologies. Even though there is no actual medical need for HGM, to avoid children with genetic diseases, since we already have robust technologies for that purpose (but see also our note on Prenatal testing, disability and eugenics). No, the billionaires, who openly advocate the eugenic idea of trans-humanism are eyeing a lucrative market in so-called genetic enhancement – designer babies.
The ethical and social case against designer babies is very simple.
- Allowing HGM would exacerbate existing social inequalities, allowing wealthy people to give their children genetic advantages over other people’s children. We want to encourage a world that celebrates and accepts all individuals and groups of people and that does not rely on oppressive prejudices about what a ‘better’ human being looks like. What would it be like to be a disabled person in such a society?
- Children must not become designed products, priced, judged and discriminated from birth by how ‘good’ their genes are. All parents have hopes for their children but the parents of GM babies would have expectations.
- There is no medical need for HGM since safer alternatives exist. We should not make children the subject of dangerous experiments with severe risks to their health.
Stop Designer Babies doesn’t want to go quietly into that world of designer baby eugenics. We are campaigning because we think there is a democratic right to put limits on irresponsible science. In fact, all governments in countries with IVF and biotechnology industries have agreed with that. But US and British scientists and some bioethicists are clearly building pressure to legalise human genetic modification, as they did with GM food and human-animal hybrid embryos. 25 years ago the British public firmly rejected GM foods, so why would we want to allow GM babies?
We must defend the laws against cloning and GM babies against those who want to make money in a designer baby market, and those who will accept no ethical restrictions upon science. We believe that the ethical line must be drawn here.
We think a global agreement banning human genetic modification and cloning, like the treaty banning biological weapons, is needed now.
If you agree, please join our network by emailing us