Has The Era Of Genetically Pure “Gattaca Babies” Now Begun?

Should selective breeding be used to improve the human race? Should we genetically screen embryos shortly after conception and choose only those that are the most genetically pure? This may sound like science fiction, but as you will read about below, the technology for this is already operational.

On the May 18th, a couple in Philadelphia gave birth to a baby that came from an embryo that was selected thanks to a cutting edge procedure known as “next-generation sequencing”. This procedure allows scientists to read every letter of the human genome very rapidly and very cheaply. So will millions of parents soon be lining up to check their potential offspring for “genetic abnormalities”? Has the era of genetically pure “Gattaca babies” now begun?

This new technology is being heralded as a great “breakthrough” in the field of human fertility.
According to the Guardian, the scientists that helped develop this new procedure are promoting it as a way to help couples produce a much higher percentage of “healthy” babies

And aren’t healthy babies a good thing? Of course they are. But what about all of the babies that are “discarded” in the process?

A lot of scientists involved in this field of research truly believe that they are doing a wonderful thing for parents. They are fully convinced that helping parents transform the process of fertility from “a game of craps” into a process that they can control is a worthwhile endeavor.

But where does this end?At first, they may just weed out babies that have a high chance of getting sick or being deformed.Next, parents may start selecting babies based on hair color, eye color, etc.
And eventually, “defective” embryos may be banned entirely because they would be “too much of a burden on society”.

Back in 1997, a movie entitled Gattaca came out that envisioned a world where those that are not “genetically pure” are greatly discriminated against.The film presents vision of a future society driven by liberal eugenics where potential children are selected through preimplantation genetic diagnosis to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to instantly identify and classify those so created as “valids” while those conceived by traditional means are derisively known as “in-valids”

At the time, nobody ever dreamed that we would actually see such a thing in the real world.
But these days technology is moving at a pace that is absolutely mind blowing.We are moving into a time when genetic manipulation of the human race is going to become commonplace.Scientists are assuring us that there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about.Unfortunately, they have no idea what they are messing around with.

Original Article Here