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Sam Altman and husband reportedly working to genetically engineer babies from having hereditary disease (www.the-independent.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 52 points 11 months ago* (11 children)

In before this turns into "I want my baby to have blue eyes and 150 IQ"

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  • [–] 22 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    It's an interesting ethical debate.

    I have a hereditary condition which passes only by the X chromosome, so should I, as a man, abort a daughter? Because now the risk is too high and I've elected to simply not have children. It would be great if I could fix the single swapped base pair that would otherwise cause disfigurement and life-long health problems.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Yeah I'm always conflicted. Like eugenics is the end goal for these fascists but also... We should try to prevent hereditary defects rtct

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    The unforeseen effects should be enough to give us pause.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    What do you mean with unforeseen effects in this context?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Unforeseen is pretty clear, by definition, that they're things we wouldn't be able to predict until they happen. I agree with the general sentiment in this thread btw, using genetics to prevent hereditary conditions or otherwise improve the human condition sounds great on paper but it's risky business.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I understand what the word means, but in which domain are the effects unpredictable? In terms of policy and enforcement of what may or may not be genetically modified, or what the genetic outcome would be of gene modification? I agree with the prior.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    High IQ would be sure nice, but has a large number of genes involved. Not that you need a high IQ as a farmer in a low technology future.

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