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Designer Babies

Singularity Hub writes "The Fertility Institutes recently stunned the fertility community by being the first company to boldly offer couples the opportunity to screen their embryos not only for diseases and gender, but also for completely benign characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and complexion. The Fertility Institutes proudly claims this is just the tip of the iceberg, and plans to offer almost any conceivable customization as science makes them available. Even as couples from across the globe are flocking in droves to pay the company their life's savings for a custom baby, opponents are vilifying the company for shattering moral and ethical boundaries. Like it or not, the era of designer babies is officially here and there is no going back."

5 of 902 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This too was foreseen by jmorris42 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    > Freedom means putting up with shit you don't like.

    You MIGHT be a hard core Libertarian and none of your recent posts brings that out well... but you are probably either a lying bastard or self deluded. Odds are you are perfectly willing to 'put up with' things you agree with or don't care about' but quite willing to invoke the power of social sanction or outright government force to enforce things YOU care about on others.

    Or are you for allowing school choice... even when it means fundies can skip teaching evolution and condoms?

    Or are you against using the power of the State to seize the resources of the successful to give to those who couldn't give enough of a shit to get an education? And just tell em to get a job (and that getting married before having the litter of sprogs is a good idea) and thus take care of themselves and their own without suckling the government's teat?

    And you are of course against crap like the Fairness Doctrine, right?

    And are you against all gun control. at least anything less than crew served weapons or WMD, right?

    Hate Speech? That doesn't exist in your "Freedom is flying yer freak flag" world, right?

    And so on and so on. Hope you get my point by now. Just because YOU don't care one way or the other about designer babies doesn't mean as a society we might not need to make a decision that this is such a bad idea we just might want to at least go on the record that this is a BAD IDEA and perhaps discourage it a little? Is bringing up the subject of societal disapproval too much for the everything is grey moral relativists? Once we get that much moral clarity we can consider the question of opening up the bigger can of worms as to whether we can or should regulate it legally.

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    Democrat delenda est
  2. make it illegal by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    it will still go on, you can't legislate against moral repugnance, but at least it will drive it underground, and will happen less

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    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  3. Re:This too was foreseen by jmorris42 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    > We could just kill everyone suffering from those diseases and would we would have the same result.

    Oh we are far too enlightened for that. Nah, we can just sterilize em the second a defect is detected. That way they can't pass on their defect and if he/she is really a loser the Democrats still get a voter for life! Same effect really, we are about to start saying people with genes we don't like shouldn't have been born and surely shouldn't reproduce. I'm sure it will really boost the self esteem of at least half the population when they learn they have a gene that indicates they never should have been born. Certain to increase productivity, lower rates of depression and crime!

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    Democrat delenda est
  4. Re:This too was foreseen by jmorris42 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    > Expecting somebody to disregard their own values and morals in decision-making isn't just unrealistic, it's immoral :)

    I totally forgot to hit on that issue while making my reply. Thanks.

    The post we both replied to is a perfect example of the tolerance of the heathen left. Their 'diversity' is a thousand people of every race, color, nationality, gender identity and sexual deviation all coming together to think in perfect lockstep, marching around with signs depicting Bush == Hitler.

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    Democrat delenda est
  5. Re:This too was foreseen by jmorris42 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    > ...democracy may be a stable political system only among a genetically improved electorate.

    No, not unless all the genetic engineered supermen are clones and thus completely equal. The problem is democracy. There is a reason that if a Founding Father had called you a "Democrat" you would have been expected to punch him in the face for making such a horrible insult. Which is why we were given a Republic... if we could keep it. We failed.

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    Democrat delenda est