Designer babies - PPR style

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Although I have nothing against correcting obvious physical disabilities before birth exactly what constitutes beauty is very debatable and there is probably some correlation between intelligence and genetics, intellect is a philosophical greased pig and is highly modifiable by environment.

A problem I see with this is the social inequality resulting from this, rich parents having "perfect" kids and the poor having the "unperfect" ones, and some who would just refuse, the issue is about they being discriminated by those who are 'superior', being undesireable by society, and I tend to see this as the potential problem, paralleling somehow with racial segregation.

I am an atheist (worth mentioning, probably), and I voted no. I am against modification of the human genome out of a fear of a kind of dystopian society emerging from this development(pretty much what greenblue said) and, more importantly, because variation in the genome of a species is imperative to its long-term survival. If you don't want to give birth to a mentally ret*d baby, an aspie baby, or a baby with red hair, then just abort the fetus and roll the dice again.

Yes, I do find that insulting, to be honest. But I can't let that personal feeling tell me what's right and wrong.

Another reason the social caste system we have now is immoral and needs changing...

In today's moral climate, the very first thing they'd do would be to breed anyone who stores fat on their bodies out of existence. Then, come the next Ice Age, everyone who's left will freeze to death.

I regard genocide as wrong. I also regard deliberate lessening of human biodiversity to be wrong.

Does this include genetic disorders? Where do you draw the line?

It includes everything. I try to avoid drawing lines, AG, so I tend to err to one side or the other on any given issue. On this side, I choose to err on the side of more genetic diversity.

That's an opinion. And there are many others. Is using birth control wrong? After all, you're deliberately, pre-emptively removing babies from existence for your own convenience, and eugenics is merely removing some genes -- not all of them -- from existence. Not because of such potential babies' specific traits, but because of their specific birthdays. How is that not equally wrong to discriminate against them based on that? Any argument would be subjective.

Last edited by Ragtime on 03 Mar 2009, 4:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I wouldn't include genetic disorders, in fact, I don't agree with the view of preventing autism to be as genocide as some have said, it doesn't seem to make that much sense to be honest.

Vote: Bring it on!

I, personally, wouldn't get selective with things like eye color, height, etc. simply because of the cost, the possibility that it wouldn't work, and the fact that I wouldn't care. I would have no problem with others doing it, though. And I would DEFINITELY have them screened for genetic disorders and the like. Even if the only "cure" is aborting an embryo and starting over. THAT is a no-brainer for me.

I don't find that insulting. If I was born with a disability, I would live to my fullest anyways. But I would still be glad to see a "cure" or prevention in development so that future generations don't have to endure what I had to.

I still want one with Vulcan ears, I don't care what anyone says!

+ 100000000

Watch the movie GATTACA (Ethan Hawke starring) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

In that universe, if you aren't "designed" you are uninsurable, and therefore essentially an unemployable non--entity... you are an "Invalid"

some quotes:

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I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science.

They used to say that a child conceived in love has a greater chance of happiness. They don't say that anymore.

I'll never understand what possessed my mother to put her faith in God's hands, rather than her local geneticist.

Can't say that I am a fan of the idea of designer babies.... would that be like saying that your own child is not good enough for you? You'd have to make it the way you want it to be?

Having gender selection births could be bad news, some countries are already doing it by abortion just so that they can have a boy, now the male to female ratio is out of balance. Mother nature randomly selects what gender we will have to prevent that sort of disaster.