Choose Our Children's Genes

Lately a very interesting topic came up in the public debate, the opportunity to design your baby. Yet it is still only an idea, but some see it as our future “invention”. While it appeals to some scientists as an exciting thing, “to be a better self”, most people instinctively react rather frightfully to the idea, just as we all should, I believe.

First of all, see it from a genetic and biological perspective. What would it mean for our vital evolution if we theoretically would be able to fully choose our children's genes. Well, the answer is easy, there wouldn't be any natural selection, which practically means that humans natural evolving process would be stopped. In addition, some genes that we today see as bad or in someway needless, and therefore get rid off, can in the future turn out to be very important. We don't know how the human body will change, neither the unpredictable future conditions for life. Thus, we cannot manipulate the DNA.

As in all important cases the question of economics seems inevitable. Of course the whole process, in which particular genes will be removed and replaced with others, means enormous costs. The question is who really can afford it. Presumably, only rich people within rich countries will have enough money to cover the huge cost of surgeries and all the other required treatments. This means that rich countries would take advantage of it, and as a consequence the gap between poor and rich countries would grow even wider.

Of course, some people would argue that the opportunity to choose your kid's genes should only involve situations when they have genetic disorders, and be forbidden in all other circumstances. That would no doubt be a positive thing. Nevertheless, it is important to have a more objective and deeper view on the subject. In a society where something is forbidden a black market tends to arise, which is followed by an increased crime rate. A historical example is the time of prohibition in the USA, during the 1920s, when production, distribution and sale of alcohol was forbidden. Instead it led to, overall more criminality and an increased usage of other drugs. So the problem is that we can't fully control the situation once we have laid a foundation to “human genetic engineering”. The risk that the knowledge falls into the wrong hands, that is to inappropriate people who would use it for other purposes, is simply way too big to take.

The scenario of a theoretical possibility of being able to fully design a child, gets even more terrifying when it gets analysed more philosophically.it is not difficult to guess, that sooner or later a question of what really is a genetic disorder and what isn't would occupy the public debate. Some people would say that for instance brown colored eyes, low intelligence level or blond hair also are genetic disorders. This sort of thinking would lead to a revolution in our understanding of morality and the ideas on which our civilisation, with all its values, is built on. Tolerance, justice and equality, none of those would exist anymore. One single thing would be valued; our genes. People would be ordered in a hierarchy, ranked after their appearance, intelligence and health et cetera. It would be a future where “better” and “worse”people truly exists. The ones on the bottom of the pyramid would be uninteresting to employers, disposed to different diseases, unbeautiful, unsuccessful...

We are all something beyond our DNA, surely we all can agree on that. Consequently how can we really claim, that the value of all people's lives is the same, and then choose our children's genes, in order to make them “better” than they are naturally?

Choosing the genes of our children means huge risks, while it disturbs the human natural process of evolution and only would be possible for rich people. However, above all, it would result in a hierarchy of people, and a society where tolerance, equality and justice no longer exist. We should rather see the whole idea as a nightmare than a “privilege”, indeed it can make us “our better selves”, but at an expense of losing all that make us human.