From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Aug 11 1999 - 15:36:28 MDT
:> So, in other words, this is such a sticky problem that we should have
> government make all the decisions? Somehow, that seems less than ideal to
> me.
No, you should know me better than that. I generally view authoratarian
solutions as poor. The two very *fuzzy* points, that I belive *society*
needs to discuss are -- Is any germline engineering justifyable? and
If you can do germline engineering -- where do you stop? (society can impose
behavior norms where governments would never tread -- even though they
may be wrong!!)
> Or do you really want to see a regulatory agency defining "enhancement",
> "treatment", "necessity" and so forth according to whatever political
> forces happen to apply at the time?
I think a "regulatory agency" would never really work. I think more
awareness on the part of perspective parents on the pressures, desires,
"genetic drives", etc. that they feel and dictate their actions would
be useful.
Why should you *care* if your children are smart/beautiful/successful,
etc.? If you do care, are you *absolutely sure* that you are making
such opinions of your own free will or whether you have programmed
into thinking such by million year old genetic machinery?
Robert
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