The topic presented today are Designers Babies, Nanomedicine, Space Travel & Tourism as well as, the Plastic Vortex. All presentations commonly covered the background and history of the topic, the current state of technology now and challenges faced by the technology. It typically ends of by predicting how the future of such technology will be like. Personally, I enjoyed the presentation on designer babies and the plastic vortex because...
(1) They are strong in their content and are really insightful
(2) Both presentation have a 'magic touch' because they present their content in a innovative and engaging manner.
(3) Logical flow & consistency are present.
Designer Babies
Designer babies involves carefully choosing the gametes with the genes which carry desired characteristics (whether appearance or traits) to create the perfect infant as perceived by the parent. There are 4 technique regarding this technology and although it is interesting to know them, I feel that the group should not have focused too much on the technical part of such technologies as it got a little dry.
The current impacts of designer babies were clearly analyzed by splitting them into individual, family and society impacts. One interesting impact to the individual (the designer baby, him/herself) is the concept of negative enhancement and its infringement of basic human rights and liberty. Although positive enhancements such as increased IQ and beauty are nothing new to designer babies, negative enhancements are definitely unheard of- at least to me.
It is curious why parents will choose negative traits for their children! Don't every parent want whats best for their kids??? Parents who opt for negative enhancements do have their rationale. For instance, deaf parents may want to introduce the gene that carry the hearing-impairment DNA to their unborn child because it will be easier for them to communicate with their child next time. Gay parents may also want their child to be born gay as that will make parenting easier and more effective. Although such a rationale is valid, I do not believe it is for the betterment of the child. Even though parenting and communication will be much easier, introducing disabilities to the child when he/she could be a normal person is a great defiance of personal rights and autonomy. Such disabilities may even caused them to be scrutinized in society- although not always necessarily. I feel that the issue of negative enhancements and its ethics should be discussed in greater details.
Apart from the usual implication of inequality in the future due to designer babies, the group has also brought up the possibility of off-planet survival whereby infants can be genetically-engineered to survive extreme conditions. Although this will mean an improvement to the ability and quality of mankind, are there any negative implications to such a possibility? Will is make us less human-like? This should also be discussed in greater details.
It is interesting that the group included a poll to gauge the public responsiveness to designer babies. After I did the poll, I realise more people object against the notion of designer babies and even fewer people will consider designing their baby. Personally, I am not against designer babies- it is indeed an improvement to mankind and strengthens our survival. Although there are possible adversities, I believe with regulation and monitoring by global organizations and local authorities, the benefits will outweigh the harms.
Besides, designing babies is already happening and it will happen more frequently in the future and become widely accepted just like the case of IVF. New technology, such as designer baby technology, will face initial rejection; but as the public sees the greater benefits of it with regulations, they will be more receptive towards it.
Although I do not reject the notion of designer babies, I will not want to have one. Whether parents want their child to be perfect is subjective. Although i want the best for my children, I do not wish that they are flawless. Perfection means that there is hardly room for improvement and people will become complacent if they are born perfect. They are unable to grow and toughen up from their mistakes because they will not commit any. Actually, thinking about this, will designer babies actually weaken humankind psychologically?
Space Travel & Tourism
The group presented on the possibility of us traveling to space for leisure. An issue that should be further discussed is that: Do we need to bring a passport to travel to space? Are security concerns an issue when we travel to space? And if so, who is responsible to ensure security in space? These are all issues that needs to be explained regarding space tourism in the future as the threat of terrorism is prominent and there is no international laws governing the security of space at the moment.
All in all, I rate this lesson a 8.9/10 because I like to know how other groups envision the future of such technologies.
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