From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@gondwanaland.com)
Date: Sat May 04 2002 - 13:44:41 MDT
On Mon, 2002-04-29 at 18:37, Hal Finney wrote:
> 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.
[...]
> 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.
Lean towards B4, possibly B3 if animal experiments indicated near zero
risk and substantial benefits.
> 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?
I personally wouldn't be opposed to other potential parents'
participation at any level, though I also wouldn't expend any energy
fighting restrictions. Fighting restrictions on reproductive
enhancement technology is a waste of political capital IMO. I'm only
concerned about adult (my) enhancement. Plenty of people want _me_ to
_die_ within a "natural" human lifespan and to live entirely within the
current confines of the "human condition" (which few humans really
explore the limits of ... I take it as my responsibility to explore
these limits without help ... but I want help from technology ASAP).
Kids raise all kinds of concerns about consent and deep-seated fears
well beyond those raised by adult enhancement. Protect the children if
we must, give me total freedom!
Mike Linksvayer
http://gondwanaland.com/ml/
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