If you haven’t seen Gattaca, you should check it out. Really good film. Takes this question and runs with it.
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Well, for one, deaf people. Deafness is at least arguably a malady and something many prospective parents wouldn’t want to have in their children, but yet, many deaf people aren’t unhappy being deaf and consider deaf language and culture to be something celebrated and preserved, not something to be eliminated.
And then consider if a Black couple might want to have a baby that could pass as white and enjoy all the advantages that confers. Should they? And if rich Black parents start doing that, does that further stigmatize the natural Black babies as being not only of “undesirable” skin tone but also obviously low class?
And consider the kids. Should parents, say, design their kid to be a football superstar, without any consideration for the fact that the kid may just hate football and want to play chess?
Fuck the ethics, it’s too late for my kids but if this shit becomes real I would invest in whatever I could to improve the genetics of my grandkids. Seems like a better gift than a college fund. Mostly I would like to fix some health issues that run in the family, but if I could make them smarter, stronger, faster, more charismatic, likely to live longer, etc. I would pay up.
If I can give my progeny the athletic attributes of an NFL player I don’t really care if they end wanting to be really athletic cello players instead of a pro athletes. It’s just about improving their opportunities
Obviously it wouldn’t be my decision as I wouldn’t be the parent, but I’m all for using science to build a better human race and think the benefits outweigh the risks
And for the parents and grandparents who can’t afford to?
Somebody’s gotta do the dirty jobs.
Well if someone like Hitler gets power and has that kind of technology at their fingertips…
Most people with the money to afford to use this science will feel the same way about it as you, which means the offspring of the wealthy will be able to dominate everything competitive - whether that’s athletic, mental, you name it. That’s extremely problematic.
This isn’t just bbb7979’s grandkids get the good genes and they get more opportunities and the status quo is in play everywhere else. This is everyone above income level X has access to this, and nobody else does. It’s nightmare fuel.
I believe the phrase is “fuck them, they should have more money.’” The rallying cry of Capitalism.
It’s already fairly straightforward to genetically screen embryos. We tested all of our embryos for chromosomal abnormalities (mostly because those wouldn’t be viable for implantation, notsomuch to avoid downs). You could screen for a lot of genetic diseases as well, and we thought about that, but didn’t
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I just don’t see it this way. I expect this is a lot more likely to work like other medical innovations. The service will only be available to the rich at first but 15 years down the line the technology will be widely available and people will benefit globally.
Kids with money already have advantages, better pre school, better universities, better healthcare, tutoring, etc. I don’t feel the answer for any of these things is not to try to take these things away from people who can afford them but instead try to offer as much as possible to everyone else.
And having healthier, stronger, smarter people is better for the whole of society. They will be more productive, consume less healthcare resources, and hopefully can help to continue to advance innovation and technology.
Just because Gattaca presents a dystopian society doesn’t mean this will be the outcome. I see gene editing as more likely a step toward utopia
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To be fair, we already live in a Dystopian society. So from that perspective, I kind of agree with you that this won’t change much.
Gene editing for designer babies will be Eiugenics on steroids.
History of selective breeding policies, including forced sterilizations of undesirables.
India currently BANS ultrasounds due to extreme mis-use for gender selection a couple of decades ago.
Why would we think humanity would be any better with gene editing?
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Wait, what? Aren’t ultrasounds really important for fetal and maternal health monitoring?
I’m not sure this is true.
I can just imagine the Facebook groups of a bunch of Dads debating over the optimal gene selections for their stable of future collegiate athletes
Good riddance.
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I’m most annoyed that this didn’t happen yesterday so that I could have suggested DieFei as our trivia team name last night.
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bbb7979 hit this already, but isn’t that how all new technology starts? First it’s just rich people then with time people figure out how to make it cheaper and open it up to a bigger market. It’s almost hard to think of really novel technologies that weren’t only available to rich people at the outset.
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So no judges?
The senate is still 50-49 unless sinema is voting with the republicans.