I would think lifestyle to be humanities best chance at cancer prevention. Rampant consumer capitalism creates a toxic mindset that has disease fighting humans for the planets survival , not the disease.
You joke... but if you could choose for your kids (and their kids) to NOT have genetic baldness... would you? ...and where do you draw the line on what is okay to choose for your future family and what isn't?
This feels like one of those topics that, when I think of potential logical ends to this technology, will make me be completely fine with being dead before it comes to fruition.
I say gene editing for disease curing right now. But if it comes down to a Gattaca competitive environment, I say full blown editing. No sense in being left behind. Maybe this is the only way to truly end racism (goodbye diversity).
Our kids are adults, so while I would have serious reservations about doing anything like that (genetic manipulation to produce a certain kind of fetus?), the problem of confronting a decision about whether to do it, should the technology become commonly available (jury's still out on that), is something we'll never have to deal with. I am for operations on a fetus to correct a "problem" prior to birth. I know that has occurred from time to time, but admit to not knowing much about it. I know more about genetics than that, to be honest. Interesting topic. My significant other had our first child as a natural birth. Nothing at all to "dull the pain," or anything like that. It was quite an experience. Our second went differently. The kid didn't want to leave that warm place at all, seemingly, and we waited and waited for contractions to begin. Days past the due date, our MD suggested helping to move things along, and my partner said something along the lines of, "Well heck, if you're going to give me meds anyway to do that, go ahead and give me something to take the edge off giving birth to this little person!" We didn't know the sex of the 2nd child, and only knew the sex of the first prior to birth by accident. Looking at the sonogram, it was obvious what sex he was, but officially, we didn't know. It's all an unique, remarkable experience. Changes your life forever. There are pros and cons, but you wouldn't trade them for the world. The idea of genetically "creating" exactly what you want ahead of time through science seems a little Orwellian to me.
I'm with you. From my view, it's part of the experience of being human. But I recognize that will ultimately be dismissed as silly.
Maybe it's from watching them grow into successful adults from that small beginning, but I wouldn't change a thing about either. They are perfect the way they are. We've been incredibly lucky.
Not past a certain point. When people are hungry and desperate, bad things happen. See Sudan, Congo, Pakistan, Mexico. Resources are not infinite, so when you show an irresponsibility in breeding children (having them with disease or illness, with cousins, druggies, no money), or having more than 8 because you think half wont survive, then you are committing a crime against humanity.
What choices would you make about your kids? Eye color? Hair color? Skin color? Height? Natural muscle mass? Sexual equipment? (boobs, schlong)? Metabolism? Vision? Hearing? Baldness? Resistance to cancer? Would you give them super-human features? (example: if genes could be genetically modified to provide vision better than any human - vision comparable to that of, say, an eagle).
Have Yao Mings Height, Chris Pauls handles, Hakeems footwork, Curry's shooting, Beards stopping strength, Jordan's hoops IQ, Magic's passing with Bocelli's voice.
it's more convenient to do it this way : "Honey: I met today a very good looking , intelligent ,healthy and athletic guy, why don't you sleep with him!"
I love the banter so far. I was reading an article about the "death of the middle child" and the notion is similar in that when you only have one or two children the stakes become much higher. The middle ones are generally the neglected rebels whom the parents can't pin one identity over the other. Now if you decide to have one kid...why not give them the best and awesomest opportunities you never could've afforded? After all, we fear the worst... I think B-Bob is onto something with epigenetic factors, but that's not gonna stop us from trying. The irony here is that, like everything else, our selfish choices will imprint upon our children. As for communist superbabies... globalism, like everything else, has never been the issue. It's all about the classes and elitism. Can't let your neighbor leave you behind.
