I don’t think embryo selection is remotely a central example of 20th century eugenics, even if it involves ‘genetic enhancement’. No one is getting killed, sterilized or otherwise being subjected to nonconsensual treatments.
In the end, it’s no different than other non-genetic interventions to ‘improve’ the general population, like the education system. Education transforms children for life in a way that many consider socially beneficial.
Why are we okay with having such massive interventions on a child’s environment (30 hours a week for 12+ years!), but not on a child’s genes? After all, phenotype is determined by genes+environment. Why is it ok to change one but not the other?
What is morally wrong about selecting which people come to existence based on their genes, when we already make such decisions based on all other aspects of their life? There are almost no illiterate people in the western world, almost no people with stunted growth. We’ve selected them out of existence via environmental interventions. Should we stop doing that?
A valid reason to reject this new eugenics would be fearing that the eugenic selection pressure could end up being controlled by political processes, which could be dangerous. But the educational system is already controlled by political processes in most countries, and again this is mostly seen as acceptable.
I’m actually very worried about this. There has been at least one paper by influential figures in EA and at least one popular forum post on genetic enhancement.
I don’t think embryo selection is remotely a central example of 20th century eugenics, even if it involves ‘genetic enhancement’. No one is getting killed, sterilized or otherwise being subjected to nonconsensual treatments.
In the end, it’s no different than other non-genetic interventions to ‘improve’ the general population, like the education system. Education transforms children for life in a way that many consider socially beneficial.
Why are we okay with having such massive interventions on a child’s environment (30 hours a week for 12+ years!), but not on a child’s genes? After all, phenotype is determined by genes+environment. Why is it ok to change one but not the other?
What is morally wrong about selecting which people come to existence based on their genes, when we already make such decisions based on all other aspects of their life? There are almost no illiterate people in the western world, almost no people with stunted growth. We’ve selected them out of existence via environmental interventions. Should we stop doing that?
A valid reason to reject this new eugenics would be fearing that the eugenic selection pressure could end up being controlled by political processes, which could be dangerous. But the educational system is already controlled by political processes in most countries, and again this is mostly seen as acceptable.