Deisgner Babies- your stance

Well that could perhaps be because we don't yet have the technology for altering our genetic structure? besides they would more than likely succeed even more, if they could alter their genetic structure.

isn't that an unfair advantage to people with more money to afford this kind of thing for their kids then?

it's already unfair enough...

however, if genetically modifiying a child to make it more intelligent were available, then you can bet that all children of rich parents will have had it done to them.

...so then you get all the super-intelligent rich children going into oxbridge and getting all the high-powered jobs in life, and all the poorer children ending up not being given as many chances in life.

...it will become even worse than it is today. you'll pretty much have a society that is drastically divided. you'll have the rich super-intelligent drop-dead-beautiful people. these are the ones that will literally have ALL the best opportunities that life can present to them.

you'll end up with a roman situation of patricians and plebeians! (before the tribune of the plebs was invented i mean).

Well society by its very nature is divided since it's made up of many different people. Perhaps you'd feel better if we designed everyone so that we're all identical? No more division in society then. Divison in society is extremely useful because it means that people have different talents which they can use for society's benefit.

The therapies should be open to everybody regardless of wealth.

Well now you're just showing off.

Why is everyone on this board obsessed with things being unfair?! We're not born equal, we're not raised equal, and we certainly don't all get the same options in life. But why would you want that anyway?

You think the fact that this world is unfair, with some people being born into intense riches and some people born into a five year life with HIV,

is OK??? Thats just wrong!

Maybe you're getting confusing with no wanting to BE all the same, which is totally different from being given equal options/oppertunities in life.

Yes I agree.
I'm totally in favour of individuality. That's great. The more individuality the better.
However I disagree with people getting on better in life simply because they have been born into a rich family for example. That is unfair and wrong. Unfortunately it is what happens, but it shouldn't.

Why, their parents got the money, they want to use the money as best they can for any children they have. Seems fair to me.

Why, their parents got the money, they want to use the money as best they can for any children they have. Seems fair to me.

Please can we argue about "designer babies" in principle rather than the whole rich/poor divide? I don't see why the therapies couldn't be open to everyone.

in principal I'm still against it for anything other than preventing diseases and that sort of thing (and even then it makes me uncomfortable slightly).

why? because designing a super-race of intelligent beautiful people is playing God (yes I believe in God, and no I'm not willing to accept that maybe he doesn't exist).

It could be argued that even doing it for health reasons is playing God, but you could get really silly then by saying that giving people medicine is playing God also. And I doubt anybody here would honestly say that medicine is a bad thing.

Alright, all the people that arnt religious can do it, fine by me.

if that happened, again you have a divide in society. this time not a rich/poor divide, but a religious/non-religious one.

brilliant

If you want to look at it from a non-religious point of view, how about the fact that it's totally unnatural!

The baby is a person in its own right, it is not PROPERTY of the parents. They are only looking after it until it is old enough to look after itself! Why should the parents have the right to poke about and create a person that they think is perfect? The child has no say in the matter. This is wrong!

The baby is just the parents trying to pass on their genes, why can they not choose which genes they pass on.

why shouldn't they just be happy with the baby they end up with?
i can't understand why people would want to pick what their child looks like.

as for accelerated evolution - how do you know that in the future, human beings might not have 10 arms with 8 fingers on each hand? seems more logical to me than some beautiful model-type person. after all, we are a species of button-pushers. computers are the norm. we spend SOO much of our lives pushing buttons and tapping keys. in all probability we will evolve into having more arms and fingers so that we can push more buttons!