There really is nothing new under the sun. I think we’ve been down this road before, of wanting to create smarter, better people:
Melbourne’s Julian Salvulescu, now Oxford’s practical ethics professor, has said it is our “moral obligation” to use IVF to choose the smartest embryos, even if that maintains or increases social inequality. Experts have criticised the Gattaca-style idea, saying the money involved could be better spent improving quality of life in Africa.
(h/t)
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Jennifer adds: Adds: I came across Savulescu when researching Marie Stopes Australia. I looked him up because he, like me, is part Romanian, and is not doubt very familiar with the birth defects present since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But this article is interesting because how do we test an embryo’s IQ? Sometimes, autistic children score higher on non-verbal IQ tests. I’m assuming any embryonic test would be non-verbal 😉 Nevermind that IQ’s are very difficult to test. Take for example the IQ test I had before entering into my “gifted” class in grade school, my equally if not more intelligent Russian friend took the same test. I remember her asking me afterward, “Who is Christopher Robin?” (Winnie the Pooh not being as popular in Moscow as it was in the US). I’m also weary of any use of the word “public interest” these days, especially reproducing or not reproducing for the sake of public interest, it’s talk like that that got us China’s One-Child policy.
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