Crystal, you have picked a right doozy of a topic this week. *G*
Genetic manipulation is personal to me on multiple levels. I have been an avid science fiction/fantasy reader since I was nine years old, and as such, I have read many “cautionary tales” on the matter. There are so many things that could possibly go wrong with unchecked and long-term use of genetic manipulation that I am very concerned about the matter.
The question of simply boy vs. girl… well, while I can’t have children myself due to several medical conditions, I have to admit I wouldn’t know what the hell to do with a boy-child, and thus would prefer a girl if I could. However, that’s why they have adoption. 
I don’t think that it is right on a moral level to manipulate the genes of a child after it is created. Partially, I wonder, would genetically altering its sex result in a transsexual child? Seeing as my ex-fiance was a preoperative female-to-male transsexual, that is an extremely hard road. There is so much more about gender than simply sex characteristics; they have actually found many differences between the male and female brain. So tampering with gender while the baby is “in progress” worries me, because the transgendered life path is a very difficult one to walk — and the sort of folk who would want to pre-select their baby’s gender aren’t, I think, liable to be overly supportive.
On another level, where does genetic manipulation stop? I know — or rather, I should say, I knew — someone who believes that “gifted” people are the future and that anything lesser is worthless. This person has actually spoken in favor of “wiping” people with certain mental disabilities from the gene pool. I ask, is that not eugenics? How is that different from what the Nazis tried to do in the Third World War?
Certainly, were I to have a child and find out that it would have a serious mental handicap, such as Downs’ Syndrome, I don’t think I could personally care for a child with those needs. There are other ones, however, that I would feel myself more prepared to handle, like ADHD or bipolar disorder. I, personally, would likely abort if I found out my child had Downs’. (Realistically speaking, if I found out I were pregnant at all, I’d be aborting. There are too many risks for me to attempt to carry a pregnancy to term.)
I can understand being personally uncomfortable with certain handicaps. I can’t understand wanting to wipe these people off the Earth, because they are some of the kindest and most honest people I know. Yes, they may not be as intelligent as you or I, but what matters most is the heart.
If one were to say that people with mental handicaps should be genetically altered / aborted, or that living people should be sterilized (as some have suggested), how far does it go? I read one person recently state that anyone with a disability should be “removed” from the gene pool. That, by the way, would include people like me. Yes, my life is hellish someday; just last night, I had to take a vicodin, two ultram, and multiple muscle relaxants to get the pain to ease up so I could sleep. But it’s my life, and I’d like to keep on living it, thank you very much.
I don’t personally intend to pass down my genetics, because in the case of both my male partners, fibromyalgia and related conditions run in their families. Were I to have children under these circumstances, the outcome would be almost certain to have it at some point in his or her life. I don’t feel that’s fair. Other people feel that the gamble is safer, and that’s their choice.
I think people need to be more accepting of each other as they are, rather than wanting them to be something needlessly different. I have no doubt that if certain persons could pre-program their children to be devout worshipers of Christ, they would. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. It shouldn’t.
And for all the good that could come of genetic manipulation, I am deeply afraid of the day when it becomes common practice, because I do not know where they will draw the line.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Yay! A fellow avid sci-fi chick. I’ve read all those cautionary tales, too…and I think this is something that should be handled with extreme care. As should anything that “messes with nature.” I hadn’t thought about the transexual angle–I guess we’ll see how these kids turn out. *fingers crossed for them and their families*
June 28th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I believe that something “could” and “would” go wrong eventually if we as a society resorted to genetic manipulation. Nature…in itself…would find a way, as they say. Too many boys or too many girls….I don’t think the world could handle it.
The transexual life is a hard life to live. Although I haven’t experienced it personally, I’ve watched enough movies and documentaries enough to imagine how hard it would be for someone living in a man/woman body and wish they were different. And all because a parent “chose” to make them that way in the first place instead of letting them be what God/nature intended them to be.
When I was pregnant with Girl #2 I had to get an amniocentesis because they thought she had the possibility of being born with Down Syndrome. I can tell you when they called me and told me I went home and cried like a baby because I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle it if she had been born with it. Bless those parents who can and do handle it. And I agree Nonny, I think they are some of the most kindest and thoughtful human beings in the world but it’s so sad that some people can’t see past their disaiblity to see that.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:14 am
My first reaction when a person starts talking about ‘removing lesser people’ is to ‘remove’ them.
I regard lack of empathy and imagination as distinct signs of being ‘lesser’.
Then I remember I’m not God and restrain myself.
In my opinion the better human qualities; empathy, wisdom, courage; have nothing to do with genetics. There might be some basis for the seeds of these things but they must be matured by the life we lead, the lessons we learn and the people we encounter.
Ultimately genetic manipulation is a ‘quick fix’. Real change is a long and arduous road, for an individual or a species.