Quote Originally Posted by Ms.Sivad View Post
So you're saying, what's a little more screwing around with them, right? And the case of child-hood obesity seems quite irrelevant to this subject, since that's not a matter of the child being purposefully altered to an image of the parent's choosing--it's the result of poor care-taking choices. And those are choices that parents have to make for him/her, as part of rearing the child... if they didn't interfere in that respect, then children would be left to fend and choose entirely for themselves. And parents have the right to make those choices (granted that the child won't endure abuse, of course), but NO one has the right to fundamentally change someone just because they happen to think it's for that person's "benefit", when that's clearly a subjective thing (if we're talking about the superficial).

And going back to a comment you made about appearance, about how if things could be a certain way, then there'd be no more worries about looking good enough.... to me, that sounds foolish, cause when it comes to beauty, NOTHING is ever enough. Just take a woman for example, who is naturally beautiful... nice symmetrical features, clear skin, pretty doe eyes and full lips--and a healthy, lean body to boot. But if she's already beautiful, why does she need make-up? Or why does she feel like she needs to lose another 5 pounds to be more appealing? Beauty is subjective, and one little feature can be deemed a flaw by anyone. (for example, a small hump in the middle of a woman's nose is thought unattractive by many... just why???) How could you say that things would be so much better with a few changes, when it's no lie that beauty in most of our world's societies, is an obsession that can't be fully satisfied? So even if there were no ethical issues in the way, it still wouldn't solve anything.
No, I was saying:"I think the effects of this will be relatively small, compared to how you raise your child." I might be playing the devil's advocate here, but there's so much you decide in how you raise a child, one might wonder how problematic it is to make a few changes in appearance and maybe remove a cleptomaniac gene or something? You say: "but NO one has the right to fundamentally change someone just because they happen to think it's for that person's "benefit" ". But there's exactly the point: What is 'fundamentally'? What is really the main reason of your behaviour? Nature or nurture? I think we need to do a lot more research before we can actually make bold statements such as saying we change how someone fundamentally is by switching some genes on/off.

I'm not immediately saying this is the way to go, but compare it to our current way of life:
Some of us get all kinds of plastic surgery to look better, since we're simply living in a day and age where looks matter. Others don't because they feel like that's not who they are. And I respect that, and sort of would feel like that too, but what if you're already born that way anyway? Then the good looks is already a part of who you are, so it's not an issue!
Some of us are depressed, or have constant headaches, or are severely aggressive by nature. So we take a load of pills against this. But what if we can save people the trouble of taking these pills by solving the problem in the genes before the child even gets born? Just saves a lot of hassle. Granted, the pharmaceutical industry will hate you for it, but who cares.

Now I'm not in favour of meddling with the complete collection of a genes a child has, because that would probably cause complete generations of almost identical children. Like you said, beauty is subjective, and when I talk to friends about the looks of a girl I always get reminded of that. I can think of a girl as absolutely gorgeous, a friend of mine can think of her as so-so. But taking the best of what the mother and the father have to offer...* Hmm, doesn't sound that bad. You see, in the belly of the mother it's more or less a matter of chance which sperm cell ends up in the egg anyway. So in that way, you'd still have original children, but without the issues on the inside or outside that almost anyone finds annoying/problematic (and denying that there are certain features in your looks or behaviour that nobody finds appealing might be very idealistic, but also quite ignorant of reality).

It's all just a way of looking at things...

*for clarification, read post #2