DailyDirt: Children Are The Future, Engineer Them Well, & Let Them Lead The Way

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The movie GATTACA came out back in 1997, but the technology to breed better people is just now starting to become more practical. We've been able (through in vitro fertilization) to select a desired baby gender for years, so selecting other traits doesn't seem that far off -- even though gene expression is a pretty complicated process. Here are just a few more projects that could lead to designing our kids' genes with more fine tuning.

• Zhao Bowen heads up a genetic research project at BGI Shenzhen that aims to crack the genetic code for intelligence by sequencing the genes of thousands of intelligent people around the world. The project boldly claims that it could boost the IQ of unborn children by 20 points. [url]
• Genetic research is finding possible links between genetic markers and some forms of autism, suggesting that there could be genetic therapies in the future. Mapping genetic mutations to particular brain traits isn't a simple task, but with more data, brain research has the potential to make significant changes to society. [url]
• Professor Julian Savulescu argues that screening babies for genetic defects is simply responsible parenting. The debate over designer babies is far from over.... [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: autism, babies, children, designer babies, dna sequencing, eugenics, gattaca, gene therapy, genetic engineering, intelligence, iq, julian savulescu, parenting, zhao bowen
Companies: bgi shenzhen