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Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

economist.com

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Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#41

Post by RobotToaster »

Avicebron wrote: post #18
cm2187 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is "eugenics" has two meanings which is unhelpful for this discussion. 1) criminal practices of forced sterilisations, ethnic cleansing and mass assassinations to phase out undesired genes 2) the more generic practice of trying to improve the genetic characteristics of your children. I don't think there is much point in debating 1). But we would be naive to think we are not already doing 2). What else is…

The issue is where do you draw the line with 2)? What does "improve the genetic characteristics of your children" mean in practice? Everyone starts with 2) and then it creeps into 1).

> The issue is where do you draw the line with 2)? What does "improve the genetic characteristics of your children" mean in practice?

That should be entirely down to the parents.

Someone having a genetically engineered baby doesn't affect anyone else.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#42

Post by zipy124 »

someonebaggy wrote: post #31
otaconjh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few stats I just looked up on people with downs syndrome: - Over 90% of children are enrolled in public school. - 79% of those are in general education classrooms. - Approx. 50% of adults are employed.

50% is awfully low for today's system where you are employed or starving or someone else is your carer.

The employment rate in the USA is only like 59%. Amongst Men over 20 years old it's ~68% and woman ~56% so it's actually not that far off the average.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#43

Post by hoppp »

newqer wrote: post #3

This is just one step away from eugenics. When the data is in the machine, you just know it will be used for malicious activities.

That's why at-home sequencing should become the norm.

But to be fair, I see no issues with genetic testing of embryos that could still be aborted. If a person would grow up with a serious illness it could be considered. But then genetic modification should be accessible too, to preserve the life but update the code.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#44

Post by boxed »

laszlokorte wrote: post #37
arghwhat wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no path that turns "I would like to terminate my pregnancy if the outcome is unfavorable" into "I would like to commit genocide on everyone whose genetics I do not like". Granted, someone who already wishes for or aligns with the idea of ethnic cleansing might start by only publicly sharing their wish for the former to begin with, but I don't see a sensible argument for it being a natural extension of the fo…

"I would like my child to not be deaf" -> "Many (most?) people would prefer their child to not be deaf" -> (3) "Deaf community shrinks" -> "Social support for deaf people is reduced/seen as not necessary" -> "Parents of deaf children are blamed for carrying out the child" -> "Parents are nudged (forced) to terminate the pregnancy" -> goto (3) In a some way this is already happening (eg Judges forcing cochlea implants…

Deafness is a huge handicap, in many ways significantly worse than blindness. That the victims of this horrible ailment start to self identify with it isn't a reason to subject new humans to it.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#47

Post by dbspin »

RobotToaster wrote: post #41
Avicebron wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is where do you draw the line with 2)? What does "improve the genetic characteristics of your children" mean in practice? Everyone starts with 2) and then it creeps into 1).

> The issue is where do you draw the line with 2)? What does "improve the genetic characteristics of your children" mean in practice? That should be entirely down to the parents. Someone having a genetically engineered baby doesn't affect anyone else.

> That should be entirely down to the parents.

When making decisions that will affect (in planned and unpredictable ways) the phenotype of a person over their entire life course - society / medical experts and researchers etc necessarily need to have a say.

We can't beat or euthanise our children, neither should we have carte blanche over their genetic makeup.

Note - I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't employ gene modification to ameliorate health issues or even to improve other metrics. However this is absolutely not just 'down to the parents'.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#48

Post by boxed »

The negative comments against genetic screening here seems to be 100% from people who either have no serious genetic diseases lurking in their family tree or are lying to themselves and pretending they don't.

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#49

Post by mschuster91 »

quibono wrote: post #39

I had a funny experience related to this. I was a driver in a car with middle-age mums and one of the things that came up in their conversation was a cold case being solved thanks to DNA evidence. Then the conversation quickly moved onto exactly this, i.e. how everyone should be screened at birth so we can all identify the perpetrator right away; and then this moved to how the CSAM scanning is a good thing and should…

Some people unfortunately are far too willing to exchange a sense of "security" or "justice" for (effectively) all of their privacy.

A large part of that, IMHO, comes from mass media outright programming people to be afraid. Fear sells, and authoritarian politicians are more than willing to capitalize on selling the "solution".

Re: Should every baby's DNA be sequenced?

#50

Post by dbg31415 »

> Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta.
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