You have the magical power to stop one and only one of the following two scenarios. Which would you prevent?
1. Human embryos are genetically manipulated to have certain traits (e.g., sex, specific eye or hair color) before they are implanted.
2. People cannot have children unless they get a parenting license.
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4 comments:
I think people doing #1 should do #2 first. So what the hell: I prevent #1.
Ah, this is a good one! They're both awful, of course, but I'll prevent #1 -- #2 can be more easily undone.
To adopt you must have #2 so that is already happening. I guess I would prevent #1.
Prevent #1, if you mean designer-baby type choices. It's an abuse of genetic research, and is the kind of thing that makes people think all genetic research is evil. Otoh, if you mean any kind of genetic manipulation including that which might allow a normal gene to be substituted for one that causes a debilitating disease, then I'd go with #2.
As for #2, the idea of requiring bio-parents to obtain a license is problematic for a variety of reasons. In the wrong hands, you're just going to end up with a version of scenario #1 (picking and choosing which babies get to be born). If the intent in #2 is to make parents the best they can be, then something like parenting classes for already-expectant first-time bio-parents would be a better choice.
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