Granted, we would not edit things like hair or eye color because it would feel like an unwelcome intrusion into other person’s individuality even when the person does not exist yet. But we would edit out the potential problems.
One problem with this perspective is that not everyone is agreed on what is a “potential problem” and what falls into “[an]other person’s individuality”. Deafness springs to mind as an example, and in the other direction, what if ginger hair would increase the odds that your child got bullied?
Bullying is AFAIK based on perceived weakness, being a good victim candidate. Granted, being “weird” and thus seen as not having many allies, easy to single out, is a perceived weakness. Still I would probably tackle the problem by other means (like convincing ginger kids to always protect each other). Deafness is clearly a defect, I don’t really care about the deaf hamstering about how it is a culture. It is a culture made to deal with a defect, and as such it is a very respectable one, but it is just like the culture of grieving, if we become immortal we will not miss spectacular tombstones.
But sure on the meta level I do agree not all people will agree with me here. But there is an obvious solution of leaving the corner cases to the parents jurisdiction.
What I would want to avoid is arms races really. Such as in height (being important for the sex appeal of men).
One problem with this perspective is that not everyone is agreed on what is a “potential problem” and what falls into “[an]other person’s individuality”. Deafness springs to mind as an example, and in the other direction, what if ginger hair would increase the odds that your child got bullied?
Bullying is AFAIK based on perceived weakness, being a good victim candidate. Granted, being “weird” and thus seen as not having many allies, easy to single out, is a perceived weakness. Still I would probably tackle the problem by other means (like convincing ginger kids to always protect each other). Deafness is clearly a defect, I don’t really care about the deaf hamstering about how it is a culture. It is a culture made to deal with a defect, and as such it is a very respectable one, but it is just like the culture of grieving, if we become immortal we will not miss spectacular tombstones.
But sure on the meta level I do agree not all people will agree with me here. But there is an obvious solution of leaving the corner cases to the parents jurisdiction.
What I would want to avoid is arms races really. Such as in height (being important for the sex appeal of men).