It might be that creating new consciousnesses is a fundamental right, but merely stating it is just sweeping a (tricky) subject under the rug. And even rights have limits when they collide with other rights. Imagine someone has a genetic trait that condemns their offspring to constant excruciating pain. How about the right not to be born just to suffer?
Selective Breeding is Cruel
For myself personally, this is the most compelling reason to not use selective breeding: it is a cruel judgment upon those who, through no fault of their own, happen to draw the short stick in the genetic lottery.
How about people who are not attractive then?
Though we may recognize that certain genes confer advantages to an individual, we must not confuse human ability with human value.
Differences in ability already lead to different opportunities for breeding offspring. Should we correct that too?
It might be that creating new consciousnesses is a fundamental right, but merely stating it is just sweeping a (tricky) subject under the rug. And even rights have limits when they collide with other rights. Imagine someone has a genetic trait that condemns their offspring to constant excruciating pain. How about the right not to be born just to suffer?
You’re right, there are definitely some corner cases in the “right to reproduce” where we might make exceptions, such as extreme suffering of the offspring. I’m going to change the wording of the original post because it came across as more absolutist than I meant it to be.
How about people who are not attractive then?
Frankly I agree that unattractive people are not treated well by our society. It is one of many unfortunate things about the current state of the world. It would be nice if everyone was attractive, just like it would be nice if everyone was intelligent and had low risk of lung cancer. We should work to fix such issues.
But we have a choice to make about how we pursue genetic engineering, and I was merely trying to make the point that CHOOSING to pursue it via selective breeding would introduce additional cruelty into the world not already present.
It might be that creating new consciousnesses is a fundamental right, but merely stating it is just sweeping a (tricky) subject under the rug. And even rights have limits when they collide with other rights. Imagine someone has a genetic trait that condemns their offspring to constant excruciating pain. How about the right not to be born just to suffer?
How about people who are not attractive then?
Differences in ability already lead to different opportunities for breeding offspring. Should we correct that too?
You’re right, there are definitely some corner cases in the “right to reproduce” where we might make exceptions, such as extreme suffering of the offspring. I’m going to change the wording of the original post because it came across as more absolutist than I meant it to be.
Frankly I agree that unattractive people are not treated well by our society. It is one of many unfortunate things about the current state of the world. It would be nice if everyone was attractive, just like it would be nice if everyone was intelligent and had low risk of lung cancer. We should work to fix such issues.
But we have a choice to make about how we pursue genetic engineering, and I was merely trying to make the point that CHOOSING to pursue it via selective breeding would introduce additional cruelty into the world not already present.