Let’s Make a Baby
Making babies is still a reasonably straight forward proposition. But science could soon be thrusting us into a new reality. Researchers are making advances that could enable us to essentially edit cells. That would theoretically make it possible to pull out horrible disease genes and penetrate into the embryo and insert good ones that could lengthen and smooth the average lifespan. As Antonio Regalado explains: “That’s the promise. The fear is that germ line engineering is a path toward a dystopia of super people and designer babies for those who can afford it. Want a child with blue eyes and blond hair? Why not design a highly intelligent group of people who could be tomorrow’s leaders and scientists?” From MIT Technology Review: Engineering the Perfect Baby.