Weeding out faulty babies....?

[Loosehead]

Is it inevitable that if we allow the weeding out of babies with certain inherited deseases at the embryo stage that it will lead to the same technique being used to weed out certain other, more cosmetic features? Story covered on News24 yesterday, involving heriditary cancer.

[jno]

almost certainly, I would have thought. People who weed out every imperfection so they can have a perfect baby are likely to be horribly surprised if (like most of us) it actually turns out to be less than perfect as it grows. Still, with luck they'll isolate the genes controlling obedience, beauty and winning the Lotto.

[WaldoMcFroog]

The danger is absolutely inherant, certainly; there are already concerns that being able to dictate your child's gender may have massive implications in societies where one gender is favoured over another.

However, I do feel that it would be criminal to refuse to allow gene therapies to cure serious illnesses on the basis that someone else might use the same technique for eugenics.

[geo0939]

I would say that this is getting very close to Eugenics, which doesn't sound nearly as nice when it is called "selective breeding". Remember the Nazis. These procedures will have to be closely monitored.

[kick3m0n]

It already goes on today to an extent with gender. I know there are several health trusts across the country who will refuse to tell parents the sex of their unborn baby, if it is detected at the scan. This is due to a disturbingly high occurrence of parents form certain cultures chosing to abort female babies. Yes, it is disturbing, and no, it is not inevitable that we will all want, or have the means to select (or deselect) genetic characteristics. However, once the technology is available, those who are of that mind, and who can afford to do so, will no doubt want to cherry pick characteristics for their child. The idea is utterly abhorrent to me, but then so is the idea of a very selfish old woman becoming pregnant with a child, and that was news last week.

[andy-hughes]

Like all scientific advances, there are potential good and bad paths to follow. As Waldo says, it is wrong to deny a scientific benefit to some, simply because it might be misued by others. We must rely in the basic goodness of the human race to ensure that good overshadws bad in this development, and hope that we can make it work.