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Designer Babies

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Would you have(or support your wife in this) a "designer baby"?
Yes I would 29%  29%  [ 5 ]
No, and I am opposed to it 65%  65%  [ 11 ]
No, and I am not opposed to it 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Other (please explain) 6%  6%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 17

ShadesOfMe
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26 Feb 2009, 2:36 am

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl? ... 2&from=rss
http://www.bionetonline.org/English/con ... _cont1.htm

I predicted this when I was a child. It's sick. The idea of aborting a fetus based on it's looks or other characteristics is so wrong. If you want a baby, you should have it and love it for who it is.



V3N0M
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26 Feb 2009, 2:44 am

I'd want to do it to make the child's life (especially high school) easy. I've never heard of abouting until you get a specific ohenotype, though. I thought he idea was to rewrite the genitic code to get the 'ideal' look, an opportunity i wish i could have had.



ShadesOfMe
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26 Feb 2009, 3:05 am

V3N0M wrote:
I'd want to do it to make the child's life (especially high school) easy. I've never heard of abouting until you get a specific ohenotype, though. I thought he idea was to rewrite the genitic code to get the 'ideal' look, an opportunity i wish i could have had.
I can just see it in the future though, designer babies being bullied. "You aren't anything special. Your'e just a designer baby."

I can't really see it making anyone's life easier.



ManErg
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26 Feb 2009, 5:28 am

Is the world suffering through lack of designer babies?

There are many problems in the world, to list a few: climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, continual wars, clean water shortages, food shortages, mass psychological alienation etc etc etc What problem do 'designer babies' solve?

It looks like an attempt to acquire vast sums of money by alleviating the fear of difference. A variation on a theme of genocide, basically. This is a product of a species that has lost it's way, that has more power than sense, not a cure.


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b9
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26 Feb 2009, 7:10 am

i would like a green one.
also i would like it to have a prominent birthmark on it's forehead that was my signature.



whitetiger
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26 Feb 2009, 10:46 am

If this gets popular, if you're NOT a designer baby, you could get bullied. I hate this idea.

It's the ultimate offense to people being who and what they are and being comfortable with it.. to assume there is some "perfect model" out there to aspire to.



b9
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26 Feb 2009, 10:59 am

people who "design" their babies could not love them properly as an individual.
they would be more "proud" of their "creation", than loving of a uniquely conceived individual.

i find it hard to be serious about such obviously ridiculous notions and i am sorry for my flippancy.
my opinions will not change anything, so i may as well be not serious.

my heart knows that it is evil for a life to be created from a human formula.
but my heart is mute and does not affect me much.



ruveyn
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26 Feb 2009, 11:00 am

I would favor "designer babies" to the extent of having any detected genetic defects removed. There is nothing wrong with quality control.

ruveyn



b9
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26 Feb 2009, 11:14 am

ruveyn wrote:
I would favor "designer babies" to the extent of having any detected genetic defects removed. There is nothing wrong with quality control.

ruveyn

quality control should be left to natural evolution. when man takes in his hands the steering wheel of his evolution, it will become a terminal convolution.
humans should never take it upon themselves to decide what nature will support.

all mutations which may lead to future genius would be ironed out of a humanly designed homogenetic notion of perfect genesis.
humans are not smart enough to take control of their evolution.



dadum
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26 Feb 2009, 11:38 am

ShadesOfMe wrote:
V3N0M wrote:
I'd want to do it to make the child's life (especially high school) easy. I've never heard of abouting until you get a specific ohenotype, though. I thought he idea was to rewrite the genitic code to get the 'ideal' look, an opportunity i wish i could have had.
I can just see it in the future though, designer babies being bullied. "You aren't anything special. Your'e just a designer baby."

I can't really see it making anyone's life easier.


I think what's more likely is that the mad media-view we have today about being perfect in all sorts of ways, will get even worse, and then it's the minority of too diverse people that will be the targets of bullying.

But then I don't if the media-view of today is just a trend, if it might become sensible sometime, who knows.



dadum
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26 Feb 2009, 11:40 am

ruveyn wrote:
I would favor "designer babies" to the extent of having any detected genetic defects removed. There is nothing wrong with quality control.

ruveyn


So to what extent? What's a defect?



ruveyn
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26 Feb 2009, 6:37 pm

dadum wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
I would favor "designer babies" to the extent of having any detected genetic defects removed. There is nothing wrong with quality control.

ruveyn


So to what extent? What's a defect?


Hemophilia for example. Or color blindness. Muscular Dystrophy. Lou Gheridgs Disease. Huntington's Chorea. Cystic Fibrosis.

ruveyn



ShadesOfMe
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26 Feb 2009, 7:03 pm

b9 wrote:
people who "design" their babies could not love them properly as an individual.
they would be more "proud" of their "creation", than loving of a uniquely conceived individual.

i find it hard to be serious about such obviously ridiculous notions and i am sorry for my flippancy.
my opinions will not change anything, so i may as well be not serious.

my heart knows that it is evil for a life to be created from a human formula.
but my heart is mute and does not affect me much.
Exactly. It's like customizing a chair, or a car. It's an object. Being able to customize a baby will bring this out.



Elfnote
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26 Feb 2009, 8:23 pm

I'm opposed to this, mostly for reasons that have already been stated. If this is popular, then those who aren't"designer" people will get bullied. If its not, the "designer" people will. People will lose the idea of acceptance, and discriminate against people who aren't like everyone else. In the end, everyone loses with this.

That said, if it doesn't involve abortion at all, I support it if and only if it were used only to remove fatal diseases. Strong, strong emphasis on the word "fatal".



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26 Feb 2009, 8:28 pm

Transhumanist here; in favor.


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ruveyn
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26 Feb 2009, 10:25 pm

b9 wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
I would favor "designer babies" to the extent of having any detected genetic defects removed. There is nothing wrong with quality control.

ruveyn

quality control should be left to natural evolution. when man takes in his hands the steering wheel of his evolution, it will become a terminal convolution.
humans should never take it upon themselves to decide what nature will support.



Are you against the use of anti-biotics. Do you think we should Nature take its course and let sick people die when it is possible to treat or even cure them? Should we stop vaccinating children against diseases such as measle, whooping cough or diptheria? Just let nature takes its course and half the children will die before they reach their fifth year.

ruveyn