Squirrels, Genetics, and Ethics.

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1823062006 <--- Read this first!!

So they're giving squirrels birth control to moderate the population. Interesting. I wonder how long it will be till someone decides to force certian humans to take birth control. We've all seen parents dealing with their children in public, and only one thought is in our minds, "Those people should NOT be parents."

In all honesty, we don't want those people who have disabilities, genetic issues, or diseases, to reproduce, do we? Its just makes sense not to let people with problems pass those on to another generation. But where is the line drawn then?

What if in the future, there are sanctions imposed on who can and can't have children? What if we decide we don't need any more "colored" people? What if only college grads can now have children? Only those with special talents in math, english, music, art are allowed to reproduce... If you're under a certian level of income, reproduction is not an option. These thoughts are scary. Also scary is the new, and very prominent process of genetic engineering of fetuses. Already, parents can have tests performed on them while pregnant to see if the baby has a likelihood of mental retardation, or other disabilities. This gives the parent time to think about abortion as an alternative option to carrying the child full-term. But what about the process of actually selecting the traits that a child will have? Ethics obviously comes into play in this argument.

Genetic engineering of human fetuses can be seen through a Kantian ethical perspective.

"If a parent desires to select the traits of their child, they should be allowed to do so. If a parent wants what is best for their child, then genetic selection will help the child as a person by giving them a strong start in life and transferring traits that are useful in having a fulfilled life (although what these traits might be is not at all clear). However, it is certainly the case that parents often try to "live though" their children by pushing them to excel in areas that the parent wished that they, themselves, had excelled. The failed baseball player might desire a child with traits that lend themselves to ballplaying. In that case, the parent would be treating the child as a means toward a personal, selfish goal rather than an end in itself. This worry is enhanced by the notion of a parent who, for example, selects musical aptitude traits for a child and subsequently forces the child through countless hours of musical training, against the child's wishes. The higher expectations that will naturally accompany genetic modified children will undoubtedly be accompanied by more bitter disappointments on the part of the parents."

Because of this, a Kantian might argue that it would not be in the best interests of children to allow specific trait selection.

"The Rossian ethical perspective is drawn from a duty to oneself for self-improvement through education and the development of talents. At first glance, this duty might seem to support genetic engineering. Parents have the duty to give their children the "best start in life" but they are not necessarily allowed to do so if it violates the rights of others. It may be the case that trait selection violates the rights of the child. This is a shaky argument, however, because of its reliance on the rights of an unborn child."

This is interesting, as the abortion argument comes into play at this point. At what point in the pregnancy does a child become a "person" and have rights? When is the point that parents can make decisions based on the rights of "potential persons"? This is most definitely a convoluted topic, with many avenues that all effect the situation.

If in the future, the world is populated by genetically engineered humans, what will happen to the notion of "average"? Everyone will be perfectly crafted, skilled, educated, healthy. How will society function if everyone is "equal"? Even today, American is running strongly on a class system. I wonder what will happen if equality (born from "perfection") truly happened.

Interesting. Haha, at least to me. I love thinking about things like this. I do feel that it is not a far off notion, it seems that it very realistically could happen in the future. This all came from the thought of squirrels on the pill. Haha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy one month, Baby. Looking forward to all the rest :)

~Molly