Posted on 06/23/2007 9:53:20 PM PDT by Coleus
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When somebody’s dead, they’re dead. The closest humans have gotten to playing God was developing and deploying nuclear weapons.
Very little can actually be done to stop designer babies. Say a law is made banning such genetic modifications, and say renegade groups successfully create babies with superiour capabilities in terms of intelligence and health, via genetic modification. The designer babies will technically be at a much superior position to succeed in life, compared to the rest of us, who will then begin to feel disadvantaged, if things go as expected. What can be done to stop them?
Nothing.
This is where the difference in philosophy between naturalists and humanists with Darwin, and Christians and creationists with God comes to a head.
One side sees that it’s just the next natural step in human’s evolution; the other sees it as the next step in the destruction of the humanity of the human race, made in the image of God.
This is why there will never be any reconciliation between the two. This is also the answer to the question the evolutionists constantly ask about what’s wrong with the ToE and humanistic philosophy, and why Christians and creationists find it so destructive.
Mankind does not have the wisdom and moral integrity on its own to not destroy the human race. Its knowledge has outstripped its ability to deal with it and the consequences of this kind of action. We’re messing with things we’re barely able to understand and we’re not ready for it.
Wasn’t there some guy many years ago who wanted to create a superhuman through genetic engineering? He was a big fan of Nietsche who wrote extensively about the ubermensch. His name rhymed with Golf but....heck if I can remember.....
That aside, intelligence does not equal morality, creating smarter babies does NOT mean a world with more love, compassion, and forgiveness.....history tells us that it could easily be quite the opposite. Look at Dawkins and Hitchens......as a quick for instance....
“The designer babies will technically be at a much superior position to succeed in life, compared to the rest of us, who will then begin to feel disadvantaged, if things go as expected. What can be done to stop them? Nothing.”
“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” - Psalm 75
That's probably an accurate description of the most radical proponents of each position. The problem for those who fear these scientific advances is that there's nothing they can do about it. Oh sure, they can refuse to participate. But they can't prevent those who disagree with them from participating, at least not without restricting the liberties of those other individuals. And even if laws were passed to try to prevent such scientific progress, the laws would almost certainly be ineffective.
So barring a catastrophic nuclear or biological war which would wipe out humanity or destroy modern civilization; or barring a natural catastrophe such as an extinction-level meteor strike on earth; or barring an equivalent massively destructive intervention by God; science WILL continue to advance, and these changes WILL happen.
Families allowed to select siblings’ genes
Published: 28th May 2007 11:32 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/7429/
Three Swedish families have been granted permission to use genetic screening to create healthy babies to aid their sick siblings.
The trio will be the first to use the controversial practice since it was legalized last July. The new law allows embryos to be subjected to testing for genetic disorders testing before being implanted into the mother’s womb. Critics of the practice say that it allows parents to create ‘designer babies’, but experts prefer to use the term ‘saviour sibling’.
Helena and Fredrik Richardson from Trollhättan, western Sweden, were one of the couples granted permission by the National Board of Health and Welfare. The Richardssons’ two sons carry a rare metabolic disorder.
The couple’s elder son, Mathias, 10, is already too ill to be treated. The only treatment that could prevent the couple’s younger son, Felix, 4, from falling ill would be a transplantation of blood stem cells from a healthy sibling. Blood would be taken from the umbilical cord and the placenta following the birth.
Allowing the three couples to go ahead, the board said that all the cases had been shown to be exceptional circumstances. In a fourth case, the board demanded extra information before taking a decision.
TT/The Local ( news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518 )
Ping!
I wonder what the Church would think about transplanting a human brain/consciousness into a robotic-type device? Barring accident or malfunction, that would essentially create a functionally immortal human.
The logical conclusion of Secular Humanistic Social Darwinism -
“There is one race that is superior to all other races, the Aryan race, and because we are superior to all other races and further evolved, it is therefore incumbent for us to dominate and/or destroy all other races, in order to usher in the next level of evolution. Social Darwinism is at the root of Nazism.”
We now have a simple test to “check” to see if an unborn child has the disease of Downs Syndrome.
Soon it will be: Eye color, Hair color, Gender, and maybe Intelligence. All in the name of science and genetic engineering.
We are now aborting 90% of children diagnosed with Downs Syndrome in the womb.
It’s easier this way rather than looking at them in the gas chamber.
Eugenics ping...
That's humans for ya!
Indeed. That’s why this will be unstoppable, no matter what is legislated.
:^)
Mary Shelly did a pretty good job on this topic.
Do we want to reach the Stars? Live in the Oceans?
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