designer babies

I think this needs a topic in itself.

We are fast approaching a time when having a child is going to be considered to risky to leave up to the vagaries of nature. With the human genome program nearing completion it is going to be possible in the near future to design the baby you want to have. This won't be just one free from abnormalities, but basically the best combination of "desirable" characteristics possible from the two "parents".

It may sound like this is a choice that some people will make who can afford it, but in the future the pressure will become great to have a designer baby. Insurance companies will offer better deals for those they know are free from flaws that may end up costing them money, employers will want to employ those humans that they know possess the right traits in their genetic profile. In the end it will become almost compulsory to design your baby, rather than leave it up to nature.

This will of course lead to an incredible gap between the have and the have nots. The situation in films like Gattaca and the social classes of "a brave new world" are not too far away. If you want to read more on this stuff a lot of these ideas come from a guy called Peter Vardy who has a lot of interesting stuff on ethical issues like this.

Well said, bro, well said.

Also listen to 'Virtual Insanity' on "travelling with out moving" by Jamiroquai.

Its scarey isn't it. And its not "will this happen?", its "when will this happen?".

I would somehow hope that as a race, we decide not to go down this path but unfortunately I can't actually see it happening. They'll be too much competition amongst the countries to have the most skilled workforce. It'll be the new arms race.

Even still, who says that the world would be worse off for it? We have these fears that the superhumans would band together and destroy all us "norms" but would they?

Also, whos to say that we'll ever actually have any success with designing babies? There seems to be the implication that as soon as we have the genome map, we'll be able to churn out batches of designer babies - but will we?

The map and the terrain it maps are very different things I would think...

It may not happen soon, but it will happen. The reason it is so scary is that it will eventually not be an option to have a "normal" baby. Diversity will be reduced and in the end this could be our downfall. It is yet another attempt by humans to circumvent nature. I think brave new world is the book that sums up all this stuff the best.

I think thats what I worry about justa. Even though I admit I don't know much about it, designing diversity out of the genepool would seem to be a real stupid idea...

Brave New World's an interesting book to bring up on a dancescene website, considering the Soma thing.
But hell, maybe we'll all blow each other up and take the planet with us before all this becomes a possibility.

we are all doomed

theres nothing we can do about it, its kinda the next step in evolution... not saying i agree with it cos how boring is our world gunna b when every one has mastered everything???(just cos they were born that way) but then again, we mite just move on up to the next level and start using more than 6% of our brains!! wahoo.

Its about time mankind wiped itself out, after all we have been trying so hard to do so for so long!

If this happens, all the genetic abnormalities that created the "Westie" will forever be lost, so who then will populate Waitakere?

ROFLMAO! Hahaha!

Maybe westies will be considered desirable and the whole world will be populated by them!!!!!

I know I have a desire for westies.

Indeed, but perhaps the issue is no different than the "haves" spending money in private education and the "have nots" not doing so? Is it really any different?

If this is a side effect of learning more about the human genome, I'm happy to go with it, due to the massive benefit of being able to possibly conceive children without harmful birth defects and abnormalities and so forth - which to me, outweights the risks of the scenario outlined above.

Im never having children
Ever

It is a lot different voice. Traits as unimportant as height are considered very desirable in the US. To me it smacks of the whole Aryan race ideal. Sure some defects would be good to not have, but a lot of other "undesirable traits" will be weeded out that have no really negative impacts. The fact that eventually natural conception won't be a viable option and that existing class boundaries will become cemented make it even worse. The situation would become that if your parents did not have you engineered to perfection you would have zero chance of "bettering yourself".