How would you feel if you could create your ideal child? A completely
healthy male who is 6’2 with blonde hair and blue eyes, and is an All-
state track and football star. Sounds great doesn’t it? He’ll be the envy
of the neighborhood. All the other parents will be so jealous; or will
they? Using the same pre-birth/pre-human technologies, Your
neighbors have created a 6’3 male who is not only a track and football
star, but also is a straight A student. Three questions are raised with
this scenario. First, where does this pre-destination stop? Will we end
up with 12’ tall people with super-human abilities and IQs that would
rival Einstein’s? Secondly, is this genetic alteration morally, or legally
right? Should we be able to decide how we want our children look, and
perform at various tasks? And finally are we capable of making this
enormous decision, or should it be left up to the law and policy makers
of this country?
When considering these questions, you have to consider your own
morals, as well as religion, and decide if you fundamentally believe it to
be all right. Many consider this the ultimate way to create the perfect
army, football team, or Olympic team, but who are we to fool with
nature? Granted, it would be fun, and a safer way to create what we
consider the perfect human, but wouldn’t that lead to a stiflingly boring
society full of over aggressive parents that plan out a child’s life down
to how tall he will grow to be, and who he will marry? Eventually we
would be surrounded by perfect human beings. Unfortunately, that
goes against every after-school special that we’ve ever watched,
because we have always been told that we are unique and special
because there is no one else like us.
So what happens when parents across the globe go into the fertility
clinic and request a #7, or a #12B Johnny, or a #351 Suzy. Aldous
Huxley portrays this with his Bokanovsky groups. Up to 86 twins. It
turns out perfectly for the world controllers, because these groups are
specially bred with a single purpose in mind. This sounds perfect, and
in a lot of ways I think it is, but it goes against every law of nature that
we’ve heard about since we were born. The one question that we must
continually ask ourselves is who are we to pre-determine someone’s
personal characteristics.
Proponents of this technology believe that this technology will be used
responsibly and in only certain medical situations, but I believe that if
let go unchecked, people will begin to alter every little aspect of their
children’s appearance. From looks to personality. And if anyone tries to
stop them, they will appeal to the court system, which will be unwillingly
forced to allow their actions. I think this because how are the courts
going to say that one potential disease is more lethal/important than
another is. Examples of this can be shown when you ask the question:
Which should be cured: Alcoholism/behavioral diseases/loss of
limbs/mental retardation?
These are all tough questions, and I definitely don’t have the answer for
all of them, but I do know how I would vote if it ever came down to a
vote. Even though my vote would go against my initial gut instinct. This
is something that every one of us needs to begin thinking about. It
would be great if we could have the technology to rid the world of all of
our diseases, but someday this technology will unfortunately fall into the
wrong hands and will be used in a “non-ethical” way. Now does this
mean that we should not use this technology when it becomes available,
or are we morally bound to help those families that need this assistance,
and hope that by legislation, and smart thinking Americans, we can limit
the abuse of this technology. I personally believe it to be unfair to deny
these families the right to this technology simply because of the fear
that the wrong people for the wrong reasons would eventually use it.
So if it comes down to a vote, I have to vote for this controversial
technology.