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Is evolving reproductive technology ushering in a new age of eugenics?
I would be very careful about trying to engineer a human in any way. For every trait that has some binary function, there are myriads that do not, so I think it would be a rude awakening to try to fine tune height, for example. That said, I think its reasonable to test whether an embryo made in a test tube or a natural birth has certain genetic abnormalities, such as a trisomy or some other aberration that causes retardation, and then decide if this is a baby worth having.
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> That said, I think its reasonable to test whether an embryo ... has certain genetic abnormalities ... and then decide if this is a baby worth having.
This sounds reasonable, but the problem is with defining what an abnormality is. For instance, we'd probably agree that dyslexia is an abnormality that would cause a child serious problems, but a recent NY Times piece argues otherwise: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-...