Design your own child?

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Charlotte408

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Major :eek: right??

A couple semesters back I had a teacher who held a class discussion on the possiblity of ‘Designer Children’…like, if we could, manipulate genes, or what have you, to be able to pick and choose EXACTLY what our kids would look like, should we? And the class was pretty much took the stance that it would take away our individuality. Some people raised the arguments that we would be able to filter out diseases and other…i guess family traits like baldness or obesity…But this was just conversation…about a ‘what if someday’

So then, I’m watchin the news the other day, and theres this california cyrobank that IS DOING IT!! I swear on my life - there was this girl, sitting there clicking different images of celebrity look alikes, and she was picking this ones nose, that ones eyes, this ones chin!!! and then she’s like, ‘I know theres some people who are out there that will say, leave it up to God, but, those people just dont get it’

Crazyness…total crazyness. I dont know I just thought I’d bring it up for conversations sake and see what ya’ll thought…

Me, personally- Never no way…and only bad things can come of it…I think it’ll turn babys into material toys, like chihuahuas in beverly hills picked to match handbags or something??? LMBO!! you know what i mean???
 
lol…yeah i guess thats a pretty silly question for CAF LMBO…
 
Then again, theres athiests and other religions here…so…who knows…I’d love to hear the moral/religious arguements for both sides…
 
Well, there are many people who would buy into the ability to manipulate genes if we could eliminate diseases, deformities, and lower the risk to chronic conditions. If there was a safe, relatively non-intrusive way to do this to a developing embryo at relatively low cost, I think the majority of society would do it. No parent wants to watch their child be born with a crippling disease or condition.

From there, its not much of a step to “enhance” desirable traits. What if we could augment strength, agility, endurance, intelligence, memory, and beauty? Parents have an innate drive to give their children “the best”, and I bet many parents would pay reams of money to give their children desirable traits.

Now suppose a rich minority of people started to regularly augment their kids with desirable traits. Wouldn’t that serve to create a super-class of privileged people who get the best jobs, the best mates, and the best living conditions? Would middle class parents do everything in their power to bump up their progeny to this class if possible? I think there could be a lot of social pressure to do this if the rich started augmenting their kids.

There is a great movie called “Gattica” that explores this premise.
 
Designing a child to be more physically perfect would not make anyone happier. People only gain pride and satisfaction from their RELATIVE appearance to other people! Making everyone look like celebrities would just raise the standard of appearance compared to the way it is now. People would still be comparing themselves to others to see who is “the best.”

The only way to true happiness is to just be satisfied with what you have. “Designer babies” wouldn’t solve anything.

And yes, “Gattaca” is a great movie on this subject (the letters in the title represent DNA base pairs).
 
The idea of designer children is dangerous. Someone in the last century attempted to eliminate an entire group of people to make the “perfect” race.
Is the goal of eliminating disease through such means ok, I kinda think yes, but separating a noble cause with a un-noble one is the problem. At what point do the 7 deadly come to play???
 
Well, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.

There are people who support a philosophy called trans-humanism that support the idea of integrating technology with human beings to create a “better human”. It’s a pretty humanistic philosophy, but the idea is that technology can be used to attenuate the evils in nature (disease, weakness, short life spans, etc). Trans-humanists say that we have already taken the first steps into creating a better integrated human. Things like clothing, eye glasses, artificial implants, pace makers, etc have already been used and accepted by most religions as a good that negates an evil of nature. So why not continue to use technology to improve our natural abilities? Where should the line be drawn and who gets to decide where to draw it?
 
People only gain pride and satisfaction from their RELATIVE appearance to other people! Making everyone look like celebrities would just raise the standard of appearance compared to the way it is now. People would still be comparing themselves to others to see who is “the best.”
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This is a really good point. A lot of the drive behind these changes comes from pride and and envy and combine to create the desire to “get ahead” of everyone else. If we can’t be the best then maybe we can design our kids to be the best and then live vicariously through them.

In a society where the majority of the upper class are modified with the “best” talents, it just creates a homogenized mediocrity among those who are modified. Ambition, hard work, and desire will still be needed of course. But the old class of poor will fall further behind the higher class. Class mobility could freeze. Prejudice and envy would abound. Genetic modifications will just serve to create a sharper divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.

I’m just afraid that once the genie is out of the bottle there won’t be any going back.
 
I would certainly use it to eliminate diseases. Other things, not so sure about. Like rate of metabolism. That is highly influenced by genetics (no, not completely I know). What if you could make sure your kids had a normal to high metabolism so they could eat a normal diet without gaining weight. I know a girl who only burns 1200 calories a day.

Or what about a country like China. If parents could choose to have a male child, then they would see no need for infanticide (because of female children).

I think it is ambiguous where the good ends and the evil begins.
 
novaslasher said:
Well, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.

There are people who support a philosophy called trans-humanism that support the idea of integrating technology with human beings to create a “better human”. It’s a pretty humanistic philosophy, but the idea is that technology can be used to attenuate the evils in nature (disease, weakness, short life spans, etc). Trans-humanists say that we have already taken the first steps into creating a better integrated human. Things like clothing, eye glasses, artificial implants, pace makers, etc have already been used and accepted by most religions as a good that negates an evil of nature. So why not continue to use technology to improve our natural abilities? Where should the line be drawn and who gets to decide where to draw it?
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Where I would draw the line is curing genetic diseases - that’s all. But of course, we know the wickedness of Godless men has no limits - “they invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30).
 
I am shocked at the number of Catholics on this thread who honestly believe it would be ok for ANY reason to genetically design a human being – call it whatever you want. :eek:

What ever happened to trusting in God’s will for our children and for the human race?

Oh right - that happens to OTHER Catholics. I get it. If it works for you, and makes you all warm and fuzzy, then God’s will just goes out the window.

And people wonder why morality in this country is in the toilet. If you can’t trust God’s plan in the procreation of the human species, then what else is left? Why bother trusting Him with anything? 🤷

~Liza
 
lizaanne said:
I am shocked at the number of Catholics on this thread who honestly believe it would be ok for ANY reason to genetically design a human being – call it whatever you want. :eek:

What ever happened to trusting in God’s will for our children and for the human race?

Oh right - that happens to OTHER Catholics. I get it. If it works for you, and makes you all warm and fuzzy, then God’s will just goes out the window.

And people wonder why morality in this country is in the toilet. If you can’t trust God’s plan in the procreation of the human species, then what else is left? Why bother trusting Him with anything? 🤷

~Liza
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Just to promote discussion, why do you think that it’s wrong to prevent diabetes by fixing a gene beforehand, but that it’s okay to spend a lifetime taking drugs and doing insulin tests?

Or why would it be wrong to fix a gene that would predispose someone to a heart attack, yet right to perform a heart surgery on that person and put them on cholesterol drugs?

Why is changing genes a sign of distrust in God’s will, but surgeries and medical treatments NOT a sign of distrust in God’s will?

If genes can be changed in the embryo without any harm being done and no human dignity being violated, why would it be wrong to use that technology to prevent diseases?

And now that I think about it, one could argue that designer babies wouldn’t make things much different than they are now. After all, there is already a “haves” and “have-nots” separation in society between those that have healthcare and those that don’t. There is also a separation between those that can afford cosmetic surgeries and those that can’t/don’t want to.
 
People are so short sighted and selfish.

We have no idea what genetic manipulation will do to future generations. The person now may not have an illness, but that person may have children and pass on their modified genetic make up, and we do not have the history to tell us what we are doing to our future generations. Instead of just accepting God’s will and treating an illness as well as possible after birth.

With regard to the “designer babies” comment - this is the slippery slope. You allow genetic manipulation for a heart valve, but then what’s to say that someone absolutely MUST have a child with some sort of physical characteristic or they will suffer some sort of criticism? :rolleyes: That child will have children, and so on - and who knows what impact this has on the human race for generations to come.

Why is it that people just can’t accept that God has a plan and accept it? Why is there always this need to make the world in OUR image, to make babies in OUR image, to design the Church in OUR image? Honestly - Faith and trust are strong and powerful things if they are just allowed into our lives.

Or - genetically change your babies to make life easy today and then generations down the road they get to clean up the mess. :rolleyes:

Just because we CAN do something does not mean that we SHOULD.

~Liza
 
lizaanne said:
I am shocked at the number of Catholics on this thread who honestly believe it would be ok for ANY reason to genetically design a human being – call it whatever you want. :eek:

What ever happened to trusting in God’s will for our children and for the human race?

Oh right - that happens to OTHER Catholics. I get it. If it works for you, and makes you all warm and fuzzy, then God’s will just goes out the window.

And people wonder why morality in this country is in the toilet. If you can’t trust God’s plan in the procreation of the human species, then what else is left? Why bother trusting Him with anything? 🤷

~Liza
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I agree with you Liza.
Luke_K said:
Why is changing genes a sign of distrust in God’s will, but surgeries and medical treatments NOT a sign of distrust in God’s will?

If genes can be changed in the embryo without any harm being done and no human dignity being violated, why would it be wrong to use that technology to prevent diseases?
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Tampering in the process of creating life is a slippery slope. The Church is quite clear that IVF and such treatments are opposed to the way God created marriage and conception. If you are interested in the Church’s teaching on this, Good News About Sex and Marriage by Christopher West is an excellent resource. Once a solid understanding is had on the beautiful creation of a child by a husband, wife, and God together, it is abundantly clear why tampering with genetics and creating children in this way is not OK. (I’m not suggesting you personally don’t already know this, I’m just putting it out there for information.)
lizaanne said:
Why is it that people just can’t accept that God has a plan and accept it? Why is there always this need to make the world in OUR image, to make babies in OUR image, to design the Church in OUR image? Honestly - Faith and trust are strong and powerful things if they are just allowed into our lives.

Just because we CAN do something does not mean that we SHOULD.

~Liza
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:clapping:

While everyone of course prays for their children to be healthy, people who have disabled children often speak of how much they have learned from them, how much they have learned about God and themselves from their children, and what blessings they are. While it is tempting to think we could rid all pain and suffering by designing our future generations, it is just that: a temptation. There is great redemption and blessings that come in suffering. As humans we want to avoid it, but the more we accept it and allow God to meet us in it, the more we grow spiritually.
 
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