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Planned birth

Last post 11-13-2005, 3:16 PM by Newborn. 38 replies.
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  •  3/16/2004 7:43:00 PM 546492 in reply to 501617

    RE: Planned birth

    Apology accepted.   Anyway I think there are the factors to decide if it's cruelity.

    1.Is it in any kind of pain because of it

    2.Is it interferring with any of it's natrual processes

    3.Will it later die because of the alterations

    other than that I can't complain...

  •  3/17/2004 2:51:00 PM 544983 in reply to 501617

    • Vick330 is not online. Last active: 2006-12-20, 12:19 PM Vick330
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    RE: Planned birth

    As with many things, genetic manipulation is not wrong in itself, but rhater in how it is applied. I work in a lab, and I am all for genetic research that has the potential to cure, or at least give hope, to people with chronic, debilitating conditions. That goat btw doesn't produce spiderwebs in place of milk, but it's milk contains a protein that enters the making of spiderwebs.

    Where things get complicated is when it comes to its application to humans. Right now some are concerned that insurance companies will require DNA testing, this in order to better assess their risks in insuring an individual. That would be a clear violation of basic human rights.

    Now lets take the case of a pregnant mother. She learns that her child will be born with a defect, and that this can be corrected by genetic technology. I don't think it would be wrong to give this child a chance to a normal life, but what are other conditions that would qualify as 'defects'?

    I brings to mind the movie Welcome To Gattaga. In it you had the ones genetically modified, termed Valids, and those not improved where termed Invalids. If you haven't seen the movie, I strongly recommend you rent it, as it explores this issue in a realistic manner. The bottom line is, to my mind, that something that is able to improve human life shouldn't be reserved to a few elites, but allow for all to profit from it. Unfortunately, that is unrealistic and utopic.


    Beauty In Diversity
  •  3/17/2004 5:19:00 PM 546500 in reply to 501617

    RE: Planned birth

    I think that we've established the fact that genetics are useful in medical science. I think the question now is what if the other uses should be legal.
  •  3/17/2004 6:42:00 PM 544996 in reply to 501617

    RE: Planned birth

    I'd say yes. If it were legalized, it can at least be monitored to a point. If we illegalize all aspects of it, then we will just lose some of our greatest scientists. They will go off to other countries that want to profit from their expertise.
  •  3/18/2004 12:00:00 PM 544532 in reply to 501617

    • Vick330 is not online. Last active: 2006-12-20, 12:19 PM Vick330
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    RE: Planned birth

    I agree with that point, if you make something illegal then less-scrupolous nations will abuse it, or it'll simply bacome part of a black market.
    Beauty In Diversity
  •  4/2/2004 5:32:00 PM 546721 in reply to 501617

    RE: Planned birth

    By banning genetic enhancement you may not only let rogue nations get their hands on something that can be potentialy threatening to the world, but as it is probably almost impossible to give one form of genetics precedence over another (as it is very hard to specify when boundries are crossed.) you will also lose the possibilities gene therapy offers to diseases as cancer or alzheimers.

    Last week I read an article about gene therapy used to battle HIV, now this may seem as a good thing but it is not. It also is very doubtfull that 'curing' a unborn child of Down syndrome is something we should attempt and succeed at. Even so with other diseases that will kill a child in early stages of his life.

    Now I know this may seem very harsh, and in our society that has always strived to be perfect it may even seem unthinkable and fascist. But keep this in mind. Most genetic 'defects' if you want to call them that, little errors in code that make a indivial what it is, is also a way of nature to regulate things like population. To go further, these mistakes are needed to progress evolution in a natural way, hopefully eliminating things like Down, or hereditary blindess from our genetic chain. The same reasoning holds for curing a potentialy viral disease like AIDS or HIV with genetic manipulation (uber whitecell's or something like that.) Ending a virus like that in a unnatural way may cause a weakness in our kind that we have not foreseen.

    To summarize my opinion:
    Although I wish blind or deaf children could experience the wonders of this world in all the way's humanly possible. Although I wish not one parent should have a child with Down. These children are a product of a process that's age old, and are human beings that can have full lives. By eliminating them, I do not only think we are degrading people currently living with these 'handicaps', I also have the conviction that by doing so we will weaken our species in the end. Diseases as Alzheimers or cancer on the other hand are still relatively uncharted geneticly and by researching them we can make the decission about what to do.
    Research: YEAH! Free hand: NO!
  •  9/6/2004 10:29:07 AM 688299 in reply to 501617

    Planned birth

    i heard not too long ago that often when a baby is born, if it has both male and female sex organs, the doctor decides what sex to make it, which i would think in most cases that would be to make it a girl (easier to cut off than add). but a study shows that in actuality, a lot more babies are born with both than people know, and most of these situations take place without the parent ever knowing they had a double gendered child. (i can't remember the exact ratio of babies born with both, it was something scary like 1 in 5). perhaps some portion of people that end up being gay or having gender placement issues are really part of that ratio. i'm probably just talking on a tangent, but it was an eye-opening thing for me at the time.
  •  1/18/2005 8:32:04 PM 726550 in reply to 501617

    RE: Planned birth

    These "moral objections" to things like planned childhood are what lead to miserable human beings and societies. Yes, there are risks to planning things like this, but if we don't start taking control of our own destinies (as humans), we're going to keep getting the shaft from nature. I know the topic was about gender, but this is a bigger issue. It seems cruel not to give the next generation the best shot possible, ESPECIALLY when it's left up to the mothers.

    Cashiavellis

    Edit:...yeah...you fail...you fail so badly...

  •  11/13/2005 3:16:29 PM 761358 in reply to 501617

    Re: Planned birth

    I suggest you to watch Gundam seed if you haven't, they have very interesting points in there and the whole story is a possibility of what would happen if we do this.

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