Ethicists clash with researchers over creating genetically-engineered babies

Genetic mapping

Carol Forsloff - "One has to wonder about motives of parents who seek the “superior” child. What is so bad about the average little-leaguer?"are the questions ethicists pose, even as new advances tell us that genetically- compromised children can be avoided through three-parent pooling to allow skipping the problem genes.

Reports say that three-parent gene pooling to create children and avoid genetic problems will be possible soon in a short time.  But the idea is not without controversy

Ethics experts like Stan Dundon, however, wonder using those initial quotes about whether creating genetically engineered intelligent children might be the right thing to do. 

Scientists in genetic research who met at a world conference several years ago told the world then it is possible to create intelligent children and eradicate some medical and physical illness through manipulation of the gene pool, but ethicists like Stan Dundon, in his remarks at the time wondered whether picking the superior child through genetic manipulation might create its own set of special problems. 

The Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, is pointing the way to a revolution in medical genetics that could selectively create smart kids or heal mental or physical illnesses. 

 The work is being done in order to advance science, but it is not without debate in the area of ethics. 

Medical genetics takes place at what is called " the cross-roads of psychiatry, medical and behavioral genetics, environmental science and medical sociology." 

In summary, cutting edge research looks at  the issues of nature and nurture and says that those diseases most rooted in the genetic code can be controlled by genetic manipulation. 

Robert Plomin, professor of behavioural genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, has been one of the leaders on genetic manipulation that can make kids smart, but folks have wondered whether or not moving in this direction is really ethical. 

The Australian  and Kurzweil Intelligence  highlight Plomin's research, based upon studying the abilities of 4000 children, as the future of genetic selection that will allow parents to literally pick intelligent children by allowing medical scientists to manipulate the gene pool.  Plomin believes this can happen and is advancing the research to that end.

But what do ethicists and theologians say.  The New York Times reported the stance of the churches on the matter of genetic manipulation. "Those who would play God will be tempted as never before,''  was the statement reported issued by officials of the National Council of Churches, the United States Catholic Conference and the Synagogue Council of America in 1981.  

Stan Dundon, a bio-ethicist, asks the question in his manuscript, "The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation of Human Offspring."   He also discussed the problems involved in some of the scientific research with embryos, with the lack of proper medical controls, research ethics and disclosure of problems that can cause experiments to fail.  What happens, he has asked, when those experiments fail and the failure means a failed human being? 

Dundon offers the ultimate ethical issue about all this. " If  an agent insists on a right to act because a monstrous side effect is merely plausible, that agent has placed him/herself outside the moral community of mankind."  At the same time scientists believe that by moving forward, civilization will be advanced by having more smart people and fewer folks who are mentally ill, an advancement worthy of the ethical challenges.