Designer Babies: would you do it?

First of all, I think that if the option were to genetically modify children in vitro would seem like a great idea. We tend to view all our medical advancements as wonderful and marvelous things. I think that you would start to see the shift in more sinister things ala "master race" relatively quickly though as people would start to view children as some type of commodity to be ordered and specified rather than the (mostly) natural process which occurs now. I think the thing people overlook is that science depersonalizes things and the last thing that should be depersonalized is creating new life.
 
just me said:
This has me to wonder if the human race was originally "designed", in a broad sense of creation. For the most part, I cannot figure how two young people madly in love would even think about designing a child. I agree with @Kanamori . We don't even know if the FDA will allow it, anyway(snark).
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Some believe that we have been genetically altered in the past

There is a stage in our evolution which saw rapid development of brain power. Science has not yet adequately explained that one

Terence McKennas theory is that our anscestors foraging on the plains found magic mushrooms and ate them and this caused the boost in brain power. Science HAS verified that magic mushrooms boost OPENNESS (linked to creativity)

Bill hicks did a funny sketch about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSH6ofHbeUw

The whole genetics issue is a pretty alarming one...not in and of itself, but rather because we haven't got the right kind of societal system in place yet that could handle such technology responsibly. What our moronic, psychopathic 'leaders' will try to do with it is weaponise it and turn it on the populace

The other area of concern is NANOTECHNOLOGY which can literally transform you from the inside out

One of the strangest theories i've heard concerning the alien intervention in our DNA is that some people have the Rhesus monkey blood type and others don't....some sort of indicator about how alien your DNA is!

When people think of alien intervention they think of UFO's landing but what if it is more subtle than that? For example Mckenna thought that the mushrooms themselves may have come from space (everything came from space at some point!) as it has been shown that spores can survive in space. He believed that the mushroom entity is here to teach us

Then there is the effect that the suns rays have on our DNA. It might just be that our DNA is tweaked by the rays of the sun and that it is the trigger for evolution.

Womenwho have the rhesus monkey blood type often misscarry children that don't. Sooo...what the hell is going on there?

[video=youtube;5xjdik6zFjM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xjdik6zFjM[/video]
 
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Mixing of genes through sexual reproduction is the main way in which humans stay ahead of evolving disease. Change everyone's genes to be what is considered "ideal" and therefore the same, and suddenly you are looking at a society where it is very easy for viruses to "catch up".
 
Besides, we are probably just one or two mutations away from X-men babies anyway...your grandkids could be wolverine or spidey, so just let nature take its course.
 
Odyne said:
Interesting. Just me, feel free to run with this thought a little further.
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Science has done an awful lot trying to destroy the concept of creation, it seems. Yet, we draw closer and closer to creation our very own selves each decade. As we learn more, we are seeing things thought to be impossible, become things that are now within reach. While Heaven is to me spiritual while I am temporal, Heaven may exist in a more tangible way in the thought of the absence of time as we know. God, the entity people allure to as a spiritual being, is becoming easier to believe in as a Creator with a tangible body.......................................Test tubes and science, the creators, are altering and creating things never before imaginable. I find myself being drawn higher into the air of awe, with the wings of science carrying me above the stubble of carrion; a tailwind of knowledge gathered from the four winds of time swiftly taking me to the spiritual realm taking shape and presence before my eyes.
 
Nixie said:
Besides, we are probably just one or two mutations away from X-men babies anyway...your grandkids could be wolverine or spidey, so just let nature take its course.
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Now I want a wolverine baby. Thanks a lot, wench!
 
Nixie said:
Think really hard about seeing Hugh Jackman between your thighs...oh wait...wrong thread...sorry.
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GIVE IT TO ME.
 
... and then there's this:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/could...ompts-down-syndrome-soul-searching-6C10879213

Evidently, you can just snip off the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome, and people are debating/pondering/questioning the ethics and effects of it.

Reminds me of the debate within the Deaf community about the ethics of cochlear implants. Deafness is essentially curable via a sort of bionic ear today -- called a cochlear implant -- many people have it; it works. If you're born deaf and you get one of these, you essentially do not have to grow up deaf. However, parts of the deaf community question whether it is ethical to implant a child prior to their being able to consent to it. Also, it drastically changes a subculture. Some deaf people get extremely pissed off about it, too, since they take pride in that subculture and do not want it to change. Perhaps humans have an innate distrust of change.

Evidently it is similar in the Down syndrome community.

I know people who refused to vaccinate their daughter against polio years and years ago, when it was not fully eradicated, and she got polio and became crippled as a result. They thought it was God's will. Not sure I agree, since my general opinion is that if you believe God is the creator, then you believe God gave us a brain, surely he intends us to use it.

This seems to be the latest chapter in that whole debate.

Interesting debate! I think I'd definitely not want to force my child to grow up with debilitating illness if I could do anything about it, in the case of polio, down syndrome, deafness and whatever it is they can cure by tinkering with your genes.
 
muir said:
the mushroom entity is here to teach us
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But in all seriousness, and to repeat what [MENTION=3096]Nixie[/MENTION] said, we're just going to mutate anyways, and our environment is going to alter us as well. When the big climate shifts come, all the designer babies won't be able to adapt and will die off. I believe that's how Darwinism works...
 
Well, some of them will probably already be on Mars: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/09/tech/innovation/mars-one-applications

Or perhaps on a space station, where their babies will also be getting mutated. I hope my great-great-great-great-great grandchildren wind up sprouting wings, or possibly the ability to breathe fire.

P.S. you can also vote here http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...-science-space-applications-humor-astronauts/ for people who you want to send to mars. Am wondering if I can submit videos on behalf of certain other people?
 
I'm supportive of gene modification if it helps to eliminate birth defects and genetic diseases, but I know it will not be just used for that. It will also be used to make children better athletes, make them more intelligent, or superior in some other way, but it will not be available to everyone, only those wealthy enough to afford it. It will reignite Social Darwinism, which states that those who are wealthy and are in power are so because they are more "fit." So the wealthy and the powerful will design their babies to have traits that seem desirable to have, giving them an even greater advantage in our society. The poorer classes will reproduce in the old ways, which shuffles genes in a much slower, inefficient way, while the rich can reproduce much more efficaciously. I can see how that would play out in our educational, political, and economical systems.

What makes me even more weary is that there are often dozens of genes that are involved in determining something like height, intelligence, or athletic ability. Also, scientists just only recently figured out that much of that "junk DNA" isn't junk at all, and actually performs some essential functions. It makes me all the more confident that no one knows what they are getting themselves into.
 
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