From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 17:01:26 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
>
> Question 1:
>
> Suppose you have recently gotten married and are getting ready to
> have children. A group approaches you with a confidential offer.
> They will perform an in vitro fertilization for you and add the NR2B
> gene to the resulting embryo, re-implanting it for a natural childbirth.
> The hope is that the resulting baby will be genetically engineered for
> higher intelligence. As a known Extropian they hope that you might be
> willing to volunteer for this procedure.
>
> Your response is:
>
> A. Yes, I want to proceed with the experiment.
>
> B. I want to wait for more data.
> We can subdivide B into some categories:
> B1. I want to wait for more mouse tests to replicate the results.
> B2. I want to wait for the results to be replicated in another animal
> model like dogs or cats.
> B3. I want to wait for the results to be replicated in a primate model
> such as chimpanzees.
> B4. I want to wait for the results to be replicated in human beings,
> then I would be willing to go forward.
>
> C. I would not agree to this procedure even if it had been proven in
> humans.
If I and my spouse had fertility problems, my answer would be A. If
there was a known risk of having retarded or otherwise mentally
defective children (shut up), my answer would be A.
Otherwise, I'd go with B3 or B4.
>
> Question 2:
>
> If your answer to question 1 was B or C, then the question is what
> limitations, if any, you think should be imposed on other people.
> Should they be allowed to take answer A and proceed with the experiment
> based solely on the mouse results? Or would they have to wait until it
> was proven safe and effective in other animal models, or in human testing
> (clinically supervised)? Where do you draw the line for other people?
Noplace. So long as parents are free to drink and smoke while pregnant,
and abuse their kids as they see fit so long as they don't leave any
bruises or scars, and educate them in any sort of stupid religion, then
nobody has any right to put any other limits on how parents decide to
risk their kids well being.
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