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| Not enough womb for everyone | |
A deaf couple in Australia recently got permission to screen
their embryos for the genes which cause their deafness. In short
they intend cull the defective embryos, and harvest one which is
non-defective. While this makes a refreshing change from deafcouples who insist
on both their right to have a deaf child and also on their right to
taxpayer's money to assist their 'disability', it is also a little scary. The wedge of designer humans has just been hammered a little further
in. What does the wedge look like? On what grounds should legislation
demand, encourage, permit or ban harvesting?
- Gross and abnormalities which will make them
live their entire lives in pain.
- Severe mental disorders (eg schizophrenia).
- Expected reduced quality of life (eg alcoholism, drug abuse).
- Attributes which society regards as 'undesirable' (eg deafness).
- Leading less-full lives (eg low intelligence).
- Aesthetic attributes (eg blue eyes, premature baldness).
Organized religions will try to stop the technology because it undermines
their power base by de-mystifying humanity, but it will go ahead anyway. It
can't really be called murder if it done at the IVF
stage because there is only so much womb-time/space to go around. People choose
to have a small number of children, and they want to
use the technology to
minimize their chances of getting a dud. And while some Leftists on the ratbag fringe
are screaming about only the rich having this ability, most
people know this is rubbish. This technology will be affordable to anyone in
the first world within a
generation, and any social-democratic government will subsidize it because it
will save them money in
health and special-education program costs. And does anyone believe the Chinese government will stop
this technology from being available to its 1.3 billion subjects? The thought
of an entire generation of genetic Chinese superhumans brainwashed
to hate the West is a
little too scary to not compete with. And in the end, it will only take one pain racked cripple screaming 'why
did you let this happen to me?' To silence this technology's detractors even in
the West. Welcome to your brave new world, children. What parts do you want to inherit?
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