The Singular Mind

"Old fear: designer babies. New fear: deformer babies"

With genetic engineering and embryo screening and all that, people can have (or will be able to have soon) "perfect" babies ("designer" babies, free of virtually all defects and genetically based diseases, etc.), but now some clinics, just a few, have started designing for defects. Parents that have some condition, like being deaf or a dwarf, are trying to make their babies like that so that they'll be like them. I think that's just sick, at least with things like deafness. Maybe some people don't consider being a dwarf a defect, and I can see how they feel (but I still don't think they should make babies be that way, but anyways...), but there's no way anyone can say being deaf isn't going to make life way harder for the child, as well as depriving them of a lot of good things in life like just plainly hearing people's voices and hearing music, etc.

Not that people with those conditions can't live a virtually "normal" life (whatever that is) and be completely happy, and I guess a small part is the parents' choice, but I think much more is a basic human right to not be forced into a "defect." I don't know if I'd go as far as to say that humans have a right to be healthy, if something like deafness just happens, but I do think it's wrong to intentionally cripple a child to make them like their parents. Things like hair or eye color, even height or something like having an extra finger on each hand or something, I can see designing; I don't know if I would, I doubt it, but those things are mainly superficial and won't really affect the child's life. But things like whether they can HEAR or not...that's a big difference.

Some people say they can see how someone who is deaf or a dwarf could say, "I want a child like me," but you would think that would be outweighed by a desire to make life as easy and pleasant as possible for their child. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with having a "defect" (if you want to call it that) like being deaf or a dwarf, but it is definitely going to make life more difficult for the child. I don't think this is going to become a huge problem anytime soon, if ever, but I think it's something people are going to have to face at one point or another.

Labels: Technology

posted by Jeremy @ 10:41 AM