When no other kind of facepalm will do!
Posted on 08/16/2012 12:22:09 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Genetically screening our offspring to make them better people is just 'responsible parenting', claims an eminent Oxford academic.
Professor Julian Savulescu said that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a "moral obligation" as it makes them grow up into "ethically better children".
The expert in practical ethics said that we should actively give parents the choice to screen out personality flaws in their children as it meant they were then less likely to "harm themselves and others".
The academic, who is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics, made his comments in an article in the latest edition of Reader's Digest.
He explained that we are now in the middle of a genetic revolution and that although screening, for all but a few conditions, remained illegal it should be welcomed.
He said that science is increasingly discovering that genes have a significant influence on personality – with certain genetic markers in embryo suggesting future characteristics.
By screening in and screening out certain genes in the embryos, it should be possible to influence how a child turns out.
In the end, he said that "rational design" would help lead to a better, more intelligent and less violent society in the future.
"Surely trying to ensure that your children have the best, or a good enough, opportunity for a great life is responsible parenting?" wrote Prof Savulescu, the Uehiro Professor in practical ethics.
"So where genetic selection aims to bring out a trait that clearly benefits an individual and society, we should allow parents the choice.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Don't you know that it is rather rude to confuse a progressive with the facts?
“ethics” are Humanist morals based on nothing but a consensus of people without a foundation for those morals.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2919291/posts
Somebody post the picture of Recardo Montalban playing Khan in one of the Star Trek movies.
“We’re marching to a faster pace.....look out, here comes the master race!”
That’s funny right there, don’t care who ya are. If you don’t think that’s funny, you get on outa here.
I hope they find a “gay gene” because then when somebody asks me if they should genetically engineer children, I will say, sure! we can engineer them now to be raging Heterosexuals!
I wonder how many people on the side of Homosexuality would be all in an uproar over the “eventual extinction” of gay people via genetic engineering?
When no other kind of facepalm will do!
“The Boys from Brazil” (1978), starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier and James Mason.
Reminds me of “A Brave New World.” I guess the ethicist thinks he’s an Alpha and he should get to decide who becomes Betas, Gammas, etc.
There, I fixed it.
I'll search the net from round photobucket to tinypic around google image search to find that pic!
[ I could imgine that traits of independence, personal responsibility, and work eithics will be the first traits to be screened out.
Exactly - except for the few whom the “ruling elite” wish to cultivate for future rule. ]
Once the genie is released from the bottle we cannot be the ones who sit there demanding that it be crammed back in or we will appear as foolish as those that have thrown wooden shoes into machinery during the dawn of the industrial revolution.
We must make sure that the private individual is empowered to be able to use this technology more than any government and not get int he way of private enterprise using it to enhance all our lives.
He’s advocating harm to unborn babies. He’s unethical. He needs to be screened out. It’s a moral obligation to screen him out.
But such a policy will result in unexpected problems that are impossible to predict or anticipate. You will then have all the old problems of natural non-designed babies plus the new problems caused by the designer babies.
hm... I am typically against this sort of thing...
BUT
if they could prescreen babies for a tendency to become liberals when they grow up... I might have to rethink my position ;)
“Whose ethics?”
The focus group meets in Starbucks every second Thursday. So far, the new humans will be very small to have a low carbon footprint. They have two sets of sex organs so they can make a choice. Their genome is editable to remove undesired traits should any be discovered. There is an auto-abort gene should the feng shu specialist in attendance determine any negative vibes. Best, when they die they decompose into tofu.
the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades.
For all have sinned.. if you have the DNA of Adam then you cannot be “ethical” as a human being. There is only one that was, and was made so only through being God as well as human.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.