Silicon Valley wants to help me make a superbaby | Hacker News Reader

Silicon Valley wants to help me make a superbaby

sfstandard.com

Interesting -- the author got tested by two genetics startups and got super different results. and then, when they pointed it out, one of the companies actually changed their results: "My type 2 diabetes risk score had been adjusted, plummeting from more than 53% to 10.9%."

“This seems like a path toward having no people with Down syndrome, having no people with certain disabilities, even though there are people that have those disabilities that live fulfilling lives,” he said. “You’re talking about culling a tree of human evolution, right?”

I've heard this argument before and I find it insulting, as though it's somehow a moral wrongdoing to prefer children without birth defects. If I could spare my future children from MS, schizophrenia, Downs, Huntington's, Alzheimer's, etc., I'd do it in a heartbeat. Framed differently, who would deliberately inflict a healthy newborn with any of those congenital disorders? That they might live a fulfilling life in spite of their disorder wouldn't make it any less cruel.

You should keep in mind that Down syndrome is "not really" a congenital disease. Yes, it's a DNA problem, but it's a problem that happens during conception in the logic of recombining DNA, not in the DNA itself. Down is "Trisomie 21". Which makes it very weird: it a congenital disease, but not hereditary (perfectly healthy parents can have a Down syndrome kid, especially if the mother is older, Down syndrome parents have normal offspring)

So there are congenital diseases ... and there is Down syndrome. They follow an entirely different logic.

Btw: down syndrome parents have HUGE issues, but in fact these issues arise because the kids are healthy. Expectation is such kids will exceed their parents' intelligence at age 6-8 and be 2 standard deviations above their parents intelligence by age 10-12. You can imagine how that goes.

> If I could spare my future children from MS, schizophrenia, Downs, Huntington's, Alzheimer's, etc., I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I'm sure any reasonable person would agree; the more poignant question is whether you are sparing your future children or destroying some future children in favor of others. The former is something I hope any reasonable person would agree with; the latter is tantamount to eugenics.

Destroying future children in favor of other future children? Any decision we make does this. Every child is an XOR.

totally agree. but it will give the rich another competitive advantage that will separate them from the poor.

This is already big in Mexico. Being pushed with large commissions ($1000+) by the same cosmetics shops that offer fillers and cosmetic surgeries.

Blonde hair blue eyes is the big seller but skin issues and birth marks on the newborn are common side effects. They promise to fix it with laser and surgeries post birth but the fix doesn’t work well.

Gattaca

It’s a great movie here are a few of my favorite quotes from Jerome, a genetically engineered superbaby.

“Jerome Morrow was never meant to be one step down on the podium.”

Jerome Eugene Morrow: You're flying today, aren't you? Look at what a mess you're in. Come on. I have your samples ready.

Vincent Freeman: I don't need any samples where I'm going.

Jerome: You might when you get back. [shows freezer with a large stockpile of his specimen samples] Everything you need to last you two lifetimes.

Vincent Freeman: Why have you done all this?

Jerome: So Jerome will always be here when you need him.

Vincent: Where are you going?

Jerome: I'm traveling too.

Vincent: I don't know how to thank you.

Jerome: I got the better end of the deal. I only lent you my body. You lent me your dream. [gives Vincent a folded piece of paper] Not until you're upstairs.

"It's still you, it's just the best of you"

Month or two ago, we had a bunch of these eugenics people down here in Austin and it really pissed me off. Eugenics and racism go hand in hand, though the eugenics people will loudly proclaim that it's not about race, it's about making better human beings. Having read up on the history of Nazi Germany when I was younger, I am unable to separate the eugenicists and the racists in my mind.

Good luck with the future world, kids. You're gonna need it. Fortunately, I'll be long gone by then.

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