Genetically Modified Babies Already a Reality: Should we Label GMO and Organic Babies? :-D

Brace yourselves, because this is going to be one long discussion, folks. Today I am exploring more than just "designer babies..." I am interested in how that serves as an example for how we handle the moral debate of emerging technologies.

I will try my best to present relevant material that supports both sides equally, and I invite you to join me in this discussion in the comments below, or on facebook. I sincerely look forward to hearing your opinions on this subject!

Let us begin with this CNN News interview of Reproductive Endocrinologist, Dr. Steinberg about the latest medical technologies that enable screening embryos for high risk diseases and picking a baby's sex.

Dr. Steinberg, the U.S. Institutes Director of The Fertility Institutes, carried out his initial training at Bourne Hall Clinic at Cambridge University in England, the birthplace of In Vitro Fertilization! Dr. Steinberg worked with Drs. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, the original British pioneers of In Vitro Fertilization.

But is IVF, and gentic modification, playing God? Watch Dr. Steinberg explain below: 

Personally, I believe that it's this line of questioning that creates ridiculous hype around, what is currently, an innocent pursuit to help loving couples have children. Could this technology be abused down the road? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Maybe if we could all drastically shift our perception to love instead of fear, we could embrace this, and other emerging technologies, and channel them positively, and constructively, as we see ethically fit. As Nietzsche says, "we are a bridge, and not an end." 

Of course, most would disagree with me. Some might argue that this isn't an issue of seeing the issue through a lens of "fear" versus a lens of "love..." Maybe it's purely a question of open data, transparency, public scrutiny, and long-term testing. While I believe that all sentient life, whether created "organically" or in a petri dish (as all IVF children are,) is a blessing and should be treated as such, I'm certainly open to this perspective as well. 

According to an article on Info Wars:

"With the human race slowly being killed off by GMO food, environmental poisons, petroleum, plastics, chemtrails, pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, radiation, and weaponized warfare, the powers that be are working on new strain of stronger ‘humans’ to carry on our existence. Forget designer babies with specific gene preferences determined by parents, we’re talking about the utter transformation by a technocracy of the human genome. 

It is called 'Transhumanism' and scientists in the UK and US have already submitted proposals to legally create GMO babies. Actually, GMO human embryos have already been created.

Techno-eugenics, you might call it – a way to appropriate humanity for the use of an elite class. It seems innocuous at first – using stem cells to help women with fertility issues get pregnant or to help develop a healthy fetus in a woman who has damaged DNA, but it isn’t something to be taken lightly, or without deep moral concern." (Info Wars) 

Below, another clip about the moral debate of genetically engineered babies:

"Mommy, am I a science experiment?"

"You're mommy's special girl!" 

Some might be questioning whether this technology is allowing us to "play God?" Well, maybe you should consider a radical perspective: "WE ARE THE GODS NOW, according to performance philosopher, Jason Silva. I suppose I don't believe that there is anything fundamentally unnatural about harnessing the powering of emerging technologies and leveraging them to create more  comfort,  more  joy, more opportunities for people to experience bliss and love and happiness. Isn't this what evolution is all about? 

What do you think? Should we live in fear of "what if this is used against us?" Or should we revel in the immense and overwhelming possibility of what this could mean for future generations? 

 

For more information relevant to this debate, please see below:

To be Human is to be Transhuman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN57u7-x75w

We Are the Gods Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF2VrefjIjk

The Fertility Institute, Dr. Steinberg: http://www.fertility-docs.com/about-us/clinics-and-staff.php

BioTech is Creating GMO Super Humans: http://www.infowars.com/biotech-is-creating-gmo-human-babies-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/

IVF Designer Babies Raise Serious Ethical Questions: http://www.infowars.com/ivf-designer-babies-and-three-parent-babies-raise-serious-ethical-questions/ 

Engineering our Own Divinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-g_sxCbhvs

Viktoria Modesta, Bionic Pop Star: http://www.upworthy.com/she-calls-her-rarely-seen-body-type-the-model-of-the-future-and-its-redefining-whats-sexy?c=ufb1 

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