#caplan
Genetic Engineering Is Reproductive Freedom By bryan caplan
- ANALOGIA CONTRACCEZIONE. Will contraception lead to a dystopian society? It depends. If governments control individuals' contraception, then yes. If individuals control their own contraception, then no. The same goes for genetic engineering. In the hands of the government, it would be a pillar of totalitarianism.
- RICCHI SEMPRE PIÙ RICCHI? The first customers will be wealthy eccentrics, but in a few decades, GE will be affordable and normal.
- ARM RACE? Most people find my prediction frightening. Some paint GE as a pointless arms race; it's individually tempting, but society is better off without it. Others object that GE would increase inequality; the rich will buy alpha babies, and the rest of us will be stuck with betas. But there's something fishy about these complaints: If better nurture created a generation of wonder kids, we would rejoice.
- ALTEZZA. On my office wall, I have a picture of my dad at his high school graduation, towering a foot above his grandparents. Such height differences were common at the time because childhood nutrition improved so rapidly. I doubt that the grandparents who attended that graduation saw height as an "arms race" or griped that rich kids were even taller.
- OBIEZIONE DELLA VANITÀ GENITORIALE. The logic is hard to see. We praise parents who nurture their kids' health, intelligence, beauty, athletic ability, or determination because we know they're all good traits for kids to have.
- PRIVATI E GOVERNO. .If parents had complete control over their babies' genetic makeup, the end result would be a healthier, smarter, better-looking version of the diverse world of today.If governments had complete control over babies' genetic makeup, the end result could easily be a population docile and conformist
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